


The Future We Make

by Enmy



Category: Naruto
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-27
Updated: 2021-02-13
Packaged: 2021-03-12 21:21:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 21
Words: 53,453
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29017332
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Enmy/pseuds/Enmy
Summary: Sasuke meets Naruto and sees him as more than just a monster everyone should fear. The two develop a friendship that Sasuke would sacrifice everything for and who knows what else that can lead to?
Relationships: Uchiha Sasuke/Uzumaki Naruto
Comments: 58
Kudos: 155
Collections: Foxy fox 🦊





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I came up with this idea as I was working on another story. It’s a series of moments in Sasuke’s and Naruto’s lives and later on, team seven. I don’t have a plan for this story and I don’t know where it’s going but up until now the ideas came flowing. I think that when I run out of ideas I will just end it.  
> The story takes place in the Naruto universe but it does not follow the canon so it’s ooc and it’s a story mainly about friendship (with a bit of light shounen-ai so if you don’t like it, don’t read.)  
> Disclaimer: I don’t own Naruto

The Future We Make

Sasuke tugged on Itachi’s sleeve for the third time. He didn’t want to show it but he was becoming impatient.  
Itachi had promised to spend all weekend with Sasuke and teach him taijutsu and Sasuke had been waiting for that all week. Ever since Itachi became ambu Sasuke got to spend less time with him which made him a bit sad.  
That day Sasuke made sure that Itachi will keep his promise to him and first thing in the morning he mentioned it at breakfast. Itachi smiled and assured him that he did not forget and right after breakfast they headed to the training grounds in the Uchiha district. On their way there however they met Shisui, their cousin and Itachi’s best friend and the older boys stopped to chat. What can it be that it can’t wait? Sasuke thought. Since he became ambu Itachi spent a lot of time on missions but even when he was home he spent a lot of time with Shisui. That didn’t usually bother Sasuke but this time Itachi had promised to spend time with him so he couldn’t help but feel frustrated.  
He tugged on Itachi’s sleeve but his brother didn’t pay attention to him until he called his name.  
“We’re going Sasuke.” Itachi assured him before saying goodbye to Shisui.  
The rest of the weekend was spent training and on Sunday evening Itachi took Sasuke outside the Uchiha district for ice cream. They occupied a table outside and Sasuke began to eat his chocolate flavored ice cream with a smile on his face.  
“Did you have fun today, Sasuke?” Itachi asked smiling back at his little brother. Anyone who saw them could tell how fond of each other they were.  
“Yeah.” Itachi laughed.  
“You’re the first five year old I heard who said they had fun training.”  
“I want to be strong like you so that father can be proud of me too.”  
“He’s proud of you now too but you are yet too young to have achievements.”  
After a while Sasuke had a strange feeling that someone was watching him and when he diverted his eyes across the street he saw a boy his age with blonde hair and bright blue eyes staring at him. No the boy wasn’t staring at him, Sasuke noticed, the sky blue eyes were fixed on his ice cream but then the boy noticed Sasuke’s gaze upon him and left as if nothing happened. 

When Sasuke was six he was sure that his father was displeased with him. Itachi had tried to tell him that is was all in his imagination and that their father loved him just as much as he loved Itachi but even though Sasuke believed everything Itachi told him he couldn’t believe this one thing anymore.  
Itachi was a genius, everyone talked about how he activated his sharingan at the tender age of six and by the time he was enrolled in the academy he had two tomoes in both eyes and could perform C rank katon jutsus. Sasuke had yet to activate his sharingan and only mastered D rank jutsus.  
He worked hard, he really did and he was better than other children his age from the clan but his father said that he was the son of the head of the clan so he should do better. He had asked his father to watch over his training when Itachi couldn’t do it and his father had said he would but only if he proved himself worthy, so whenever Itachi was not home Sasuke trained alone. Every once in a while his father would stop by the training ground and watch him train and every time Sasuke got his hopes up but the man would leave without a word.  
After a while he distanced himself from the family except for Itachi and would spend his free time alone outside of the district.  
On that particular day he decided to go by the lake and read from Basic chakra release and easy techniques, one of the schoolbooks used at the Academy. He wouldn’t attend the Academy until next year but there was no harm in reading ahead. As he passed through the shopping district he saw a man yelling ‘thief’ and hitting a boy with a broom. At the commotion other people from the nearby stores and stands came and began assaulting the boy who managed to escape after struggling for a while. As he ran he looked behind to confirm that the chasers weren’t too close to him and he didn’t notice Sasuke standing on the sidewalk so he nearly bumped into him. As the boy came closer Sasuke grabbed his hand firmly and the boy turned to look at him with frightened blue eyes.  
“Did you steal?” Sasuke asked the boy who surprisingly wasn’t trying to get away from his grip. He quickly shook his head and Sasuke didn’t know why but he believed a total stranger so he dragged the smaller boy after him until they lost the villagers.  
Once he was sure no one was following them anymore Sasuke let go of the boy’s hand and walked towards the lake with the smaller boy following him silently.  
“Why did you help me?” the boy eventually asked.  
“You said you didn’t steal so I couldn’t let them chase you like that.”  
“Why did you believe me?” He didn’t know why himself it was just that the boy looked innocent.  
“Why wouldn’t I? Did you lie to me?” The boy looked confused as if it never crossed his mind to do such a thing.  
“No.”  
“My name is Sasuke. What’s yours?” The boy pondered whether he should answer or not and as he did so his mouth opened and closed a few times as if he was about to answer but then changed his mind. “Well?” Sasuke asked impatient. There was another pause but eventually the boy gave up and answered with a barely audible voice.  
“Naruto.”  
“Was it so hard, dobe?” Sasuke smiled at him but the insult already fired up the smaller boy.  
“Don’t call me that, teme.”  
They reached the lake and Sasuke sat on the grass but the other was hesitating. “You know I think I saw you somewhere before.” Naruto shrugged “There aren’t many people with beautiful blue eyes like yours, it must have been you.” Naruto looked at Sasuke as if he just grew a second head making the other laugh.  
“What’s so funny?” Naruto looked insulted.  
“The way you just looked at me.”  
“How should I look at you when you say weird stuff like that?”  
“I don’t find it weird. Are you going to stand there or are you going to sit?”  
They spent the rest of the day together talking about everything and nothing but Naruto always avoided Sasuke’s questions about the events that happened earlier that day.  
They decided to meet again and they would do so every time Sasuke felt the need to get out of the Uchiha district. They usually spent time at the lake or on top of Hokage Mountain but sometimes they would just walk around the village and Sasuke couldn’t help but notice the way people would stare at them and then whisper among themselves as if the two boys walking side by side was the most horrible thing happening in the village. Naruto hated crowded places but sometimes they couldn’t be avoided. He pretended not to notice the people staring at them but Sasuke knew he did because he would become quiet and would look at the ground instead of what was in front of him.

One day he left home early almost crying. He would never cry in front of his father, it would just give the man another reason to consider Sasuke weak.  
Itachi had just returned from a mission the previous night and was writing his mission report over breakfast when Sasuke asked him to train him that day but Itachi said that he would be spending some time at the Hokage Tower reporting and then he had planned to see Shisui so Sasuke should ask their father to train him. That was when a fired argument started between father and older son. It was the first time Sasuke heard Itachi speak against their father saying that it was no wonder that Sasuke couldn’t perform more complicated techniques since his father didn’t bother to teach him any. Then his father snapped at him and said that he will not teach Sasuke since he didn’t activate his sharingan yet. The arguing went on but Sasuke couldn’t take it any longer so he ran out the door and didn’t stop until he got to the lake.  
He had planned to meet with Naruto there later on that day after his training but he didn’t feel like training anymore so he decided to wait for Naruto there. Surprisingly the blonde was already there taking a nap.  
“Hey.” Sasuke shook him gently until the blue eyes opened. Naruto yawned and rubbed his eyes with the back of his hands.  
“What time is it?” he asked still sleepy.  
“It’s 8:30. What are you doing here? We were supposed to meet at 12.”  
“Then I can ask you the same thing. Did you even have breakfast?” Sasuke was pondering whether to lie or not when his stomach betrayed him.  
Getting up, Naruto grabbed Sasuke’s hand and dragged him until they reached the road. The raven didn’t complain but couldn’t help but be curious what the blonde was up to.  
“Where are we going?” he asked.  
“Shopping and then to my apartment. We’ll have breakfast.”  
“You didn’t have breakfast either?” The blonde shook his head. “Why?”  
“I’m out of stuff.” Sasuke couldn’t help but be surprised at the answer. No six year old boy should concern himself with filling the fridge with food. That’s what parents do.  
Once they got to the shopping district where the incident that led to their friendship happened, Naruto looked at the ground avoiding everyone’s glares. Grabbing his hand Sasuke laced their fingers and when the blonde gave him a questioning look he smiled at him. Naruto smiled back and it was the brightest smile Sasuke has ever seen. When they stopped across the street from a store Naruto gave Sasuke a shopping list and money.  
“If you do the shopping I’ll cook.” Looking at the store across the street Sasuke realized that it was the store where Naruto had been accused of stealing so he didn’t ask more questions. He went in, did the shopping without incidents and along with Naruto went to Naruto’s small apartment.  
“Are your parent’s ok with me coming over?” Sasuke asked as Naruto was fishing his keys out of his pocket to open the door.  
“Huh?”  
“You didn’t tell them I was coming over, did you?” Sasuke was raised to be polite and to never go to one’s house uninvited, also if he ever wanted to have friends over he should ask for permission from his mother or father. He assumed that other kids had similar rules in their homes and Naruto didn’t have the chance to ask for his parents’ consent before bringing Sasuke over so he wanted to be sure he was not going to get Naruto in trouble with his parents.  
Opening the door Naruto invited him in “I live alone so it’s ok.” Sasuke’s heart sank and he almost dropped the bag he was holding.  
“Where are they?” Naruto shrugged not even noticing that Sasuke was acting a bit odd and went on with unpacking and cooking breakfast.  
“Bacon and eggs is fine with you?”  
“Yeah.”  
Naruto cooked in silence as Sasuke watched him. He had forgotten about that morning because he was with Naruto. He had realized some time ago that Naruto had that effect on him. He always made him feel better no matter how upset he was just by keeping him company. After breakfast they went in Naruto’s bedroom and Naruto lay on the bed curled up to make space for Sasuke and Sasuke sat beside him with his back against the wall.  
“Do you want to tell me why you came so early at the lake?”  
“My father and brother had an argument.” Naruto turned his head slightly to look at Sasuke.  
“What about?”  
“Me… I’m a disgrace for my clan.” Naruto seemed to panic.  
“Is it because of me?” Sasuke was taken aback. How did this talk end up here? Why would Naruto feel guilty for something?  
“What do you mean?”  
“Is it because you hang out with me?” Sasuke never told his family that he was friends with Naruto, not even Itachi and that had nothing to do with Naruto, it was his own choice. But most importantly why would Naruto believe his family would not approve of their friendship?


	2. Chapter 2

Seven year old Sasuke was getting ready for his first day of school at the Academy. He was happy that he could spend the last day before school with Itachi. They trained together then just spent time talking. Itachi had given him advice for school and made sure he was prepared and had everything he needed. Sasuke rolled his eyes when Itachi asked him for the second time that day if he packed his books and weapons for his first day of school.  
“I’m just going to the Academy not on a one year mission.” He said pretending to be annoyed when he was actually amused.  
“Right…”Itachi smiled at him a bit embarrassed. “So if you’re ready then there just one more thing you should know.” Sasuke gave Itachi his full attention. “Stay away from Naruto Uzumaki.”  
Sasuke never asked why but at the same time he felt disappointed with his brother for the first time.  
The next day he went to Naruto’s apartment so that they could go together to school. The blonde was awfully quiet but Sasuke knew what was going on so he took the smaller boy’s hand in his the same way he always did when they went in crowded placed.  
“Are you sure you want to be seen with me at school?” Naruto suddenly asked but Sasuke paid him no attention. He assumed that after being mistreated for so long Naruto’s self-esteem was low so he just had to assure him that he will always be by his side no matter what.  
“Why wouldn’t I?”  
“Because I’m a monster.”  
“What do you mean?”  
“I don’t know but everybody says so.” They reached the academy and Sasuke figured that was not the place to continue such a conversation so he just squeezed Naruto’s hand in an assuring manner. He wasn’t going to leave Naruto’s side no matter what.  
After a few days Sasuke was already used to the glares and ignored them. He remembered Itachi’s advice to be nice and make friends because some of these children are going to be his future team mates once they graduate but he didn’t want friends who treated Naruto bad. Naruto wasn’t taking school very well though. He looked like he just wanted to disappear.  
One day a group of girls gathered around the desk occupied by the heir of the Hyuuga clan, Hinata and began chatting rather loud. Sasuke caught Hinata staring at Naruto quite a lot although she didn’t seem to do it with hatred and when she would notice Sasuke looking at her she would blush and look elsewhere.  
“Why is Sasuke sitting with the tramp?” He heard Ino Yamanaka say to the group rather loud as if she didn’t care if the subject of her discussion heard her or not. Sasuke looked at Naruto and realized that he had heard too because he was sitting with his fists clenched tight on top of his knees and they were trembling. Sasuke put a hand on top of Naruto’s fist drawing the blonde’s attention and Naruto stopped trembling. They would have to have a serious talk because Naruto couldn’t go on like this for four years.  
“And just look at that obnoxious orange jumpsuit of his.” A pink haired girl who’s name Sasuke had not bothered to remember added. He wasn’t interested in his classmates but he did know the names of the ones belonging to clans since before they started school.  
“I bet that leech is stuck to Sasuke for some reason. We can’t let that happen to a clan member, we have to help Sasuke.” Ino added and several girls agreed.  
Naruto said nothing for the rest of the day and just as soon as classed ended he bolted out of the class and school. He wanted to leave Sasuke behind but the raven wouldn’t let that happen. Sure, Naruto was fast but so was Sasuke and he caught up with Naruto in no time. Once they were on top of Hokage Mountain Naruto stopped and so did Sasuke a few steps behind the blonde. For a while Naruto just looked at the village that spreads bellows them, at the foot of the mountain, after all this was his favorite spot in the entire village just like the lake was Sasuke’s.   
“I don’t care what they say about me but I can’t accept them to treat you like that because of me.” The breeze began to blow and Sasuke pushed back a strand of black hair away from his eyes. “I think it’s better for you to stay away from me at school.”  
Sasuke made a few steps until he was just behind Naruto and wrapped his arms around the slightly smaller boy. “I won’t do that. I won’t pretend that you are not my best friend.” Naruto shifted in his arm just enough to get a glimpse of Sasuke’s face and sighed.  
“And you’re calling me dobe.”

Since they started school Sasuke and Naruto spent even more time together. Sasuke would not use the training grounds in the Uciha district anymore instead he and Naruto would go to the village’s training grounds at the edge of the forest or at Sasuke’s favorite lake to train together. Since Naruto didn’t have anyone to train him before the Academy like all clan children had, his level was incomparable to Sasuke’s but he worked hard, Sasuke would give him that. The raven taught him everything he knew about taijutsu and Naruto spent several hours after Sasuke left practicing so that he would catch up.  
As time passed Sasuke realized that it was getting harder for him to beat the blonde at their almost daily spars but when they would practice at school, under the guidance of their teacher, Iruka, Naruto would mess up more ofthen than not. His target practice was sloppy and he would jump in excitement thrusting the air with his fist every time he actually hit the target. He never hit the center though.  
“You looked like an idiot today.” Sasuke told him after one of their target practices at school. Naruto exaggerated a pout and laced his fingers behind his head.  
“You call me dobe anyway so I might as well live up to that name.”   
Sasuke realized that training wasn’t the only thing that Naruto messed up in school. In class he would often give the wrong answer when asked a question. At first Sasuke assumed that Naruto did not like to study or that he found theoretical stuff useless but one day Naruto fell asleep in class and was unceremoniously woke up by an angry Iruka with a textbook over his head.  
“Can you answer my question, Naruto?” Iruka had asked as Naruto run his hand over the hurting spot on his head.  
“And what question is that?” Iruka sighed and repeated the question.  
“What’s the highest number of shadow clones that ninja can do?”  
“Um…” Feeling sorry for him Sasuke decided to just give him the answer but when Naruto gave his answer he said “Ten?”  
“Wrong.”   
That day Naruto was stuck at school doing school duty as punishment for not paying attention in class and since their plans to go together to the training grounds after school was shoved out the window, Sasuke decided to keep him company.  
“Don’t just sit there, help me out!” Sasuke was sitting at the teacher’s desk with his chin resting on his palm and his eyes following Naruto’s every move.  
“No.”  
“Then at least don’t look at me like that. It’s creepy.” The blonde complained.  
“That’s my punishment for you.” Naruto threw the rag he was using to wipe the dust at Sasuke and put his hands on his hips.  
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Sasuke picked the dirty cloth from his shoulder where it landed, looking completely unaffected by the blonde’s fit.  
“This detention ruined our plans.” He tied a knot in the cloth and threw it back at Naruto who caught it easily. “Why did you say ten when I told you the answer was five?”  
“Because I’m a dobe.” Naruto resumed his work but Sasuke felt that it was time they cleared things up. He could guess Naruto’s reasons but they needed to talk about this so he stood up and went to Naruto who was whipping the black board wrapping his arms around him. “I can’t work like this.” Naruto whined but did not struggle out of the embrace.  
“Tell me the truth.”  
“They won’t trash your reputation if they think I’m an idiot.” Naruto laid his head on Sasuke’s shoulder “It’s the only way I can be by your side in school.”   
“You’re going to have to make it up to me for missing training though. I’m coming over for dinner.” Naruto laughed and playfully hit Sasuke with his elbow.  
“That’s not punishment, teme.”  
Little did they know that those happy days wouldn’t last for long.

Dinner started like usual only that this time Itachi was home and Sasuke was looking forward to it. He never asked Itachi why he should stay away from Naruto but the reason bothered him. Naruto didn’t know either, otherwise he would have told him, Sasuke was sure of that.  
When he got downstairs his father was already in his usual seat reading a scroll that Sasuke assumed was related to his work at the Black Ops while his mother was setting the table. He sat down in his seat and not long after that Itachi joined them. Once his mother was done with the preparation his father put the scroll to the side and began eating. It was tradition in their family that everyone else would start eating after his father.  
“So how is school, Sasuke?” his father asked.  
“It’s alright.”  
“Did you make any friends? You know that as a clan member it is important to be in good relations with other clans and it’s never too early to start those relationships.”  
“I know father but I can’t say I made any friends yet.”  
“Really? Because that is not what I heard.” Sasuke tensed in his seat but if his father noticed he didn’t show it. “I visited your school today and your teacher Iruka says that you are rather close to the Uzumaki kid.” Although his father was speaking Sasuke looked at Itachi and saw that Itachi too was looking at him intently. “Is it true?” Although he knew that his family would disapprove with this relationship Sasuke did not want to lie to them. He never did before and he would not do it now. Of course he would have preferred his father not to know but it was an unavoidable situation. It would have happened sooner or later.  
“Yes.”  
“It is my fault that I failed to tell you that you must stay away from that boy but from now on I expect you to do so.” Sasuke clenched his fists under the table.  
“Why?” In a fit of rage his father hit the table with his fist and Sasuke’s chopsticks fell on the floor.  
“Because I am your father and I say so.” He roared.  
“Then I won’t.” Sasuke jumped from his seat and ran out of the house, out of the Uchiha district and to Naruto’s tiny apartment.  
He didn’t want to tell Naruto that he had an argument with his father because of their friendship, Naruto would just blame himself but he didn’t know where else to go and Naruto’s apartment was like a second home to him.  
When Naruto opened the door he went in and just stood there in the middle of the living room not really knowing what to do. Naruto waited patiently for him to say something but after a while he broke the silence.  
“Do you want tea or hot chocolate?” Sasuke looked at the blonde for a brief moment. He felt lost and helpless and he was grateful for Naruto’s patience with him.  
“Hot chocolate.” He followed Naruto into the kitchen and watched him as he moved left and right to prepare two mugs of hot chocolate.  
“You’re doing it again.” Naruto broke the silence as he opened a cupboard to get the sugar.  
“What?”  
“You’re staring at me.”  
“Sorry.” Naruto put a hot mug in front of him and leaned against the wall with the other mug in hand.  
“Do you want to talk about what’s bothering you?” Sasuke shook his head.  
“I just don’t want to be home right now.”  
“Do you want to stay here tonight?” Sasuke nodded. “Come on.” Naruto grabbed his hand and dragged him out the window then they climbed the emergency stairs up to the roof. “We’ll watch the sunset together.” Naruto wrapped his arms around Sasuke the same way Sasuke had done many times before. It felt a bit strange since the blonde was slightly smaller but it was comfortable none the less. They were sitting on the roof and Sasuke shifted just enough to rest his head against Naruto’s shoulder. He could feel the other’s warm breath on his neck and he figured that he could sleep there and he would be content. “I like to watch the sunset and sunrise here.”  
“I never took you for a morning person.”  
“I don’t like to wake up early but sometimes I do.” Naruto vaguely explained. “The view is more beautiful on the mountain though.”  
“Why do you like that place so much?”  
“Huh? Don’t you like it?”  
“I don’t dislike it but I don’t understand why it’s so important to you.”  
“Nobody ever goes there so it’s only mine.” Sasuke diverted his gaze to look at Naruto.  
“Won’t you share it with me?” He asked with a smile on his face.  
“If it’s just you I think I can do that.”  
And just like that his problems were whipped away for now.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I want to thank you all for your comments and kudos and I hope you will enjoy the rest of the story.

After that Sasuke’s relationship with his family got worse. His father refused to acknowledge him as his son and his parents fought almost every day because of it. His mother wasn’t happy with his relationship with Naruto either but she believed that his father was going too far. Whenever Itachi was home he would try to make their father change his mind but to no avail.  
Sasuke was still allowed to stay in the house but his presence was completely ignored by his father. Because of this he spent more and more time at Naruto’s apartment. He was well aware that he would eventually have to tell Naruto something although the blonde had been patient enough and didn’t ask any questions, more than that he did his best to make Sasuke feel better when he was feeling down.   
At the Academy there were two main exams each year. One was at the middle of the school year and the other at the end and the grades the students received at these exams were very important since they made most of their final grade. The exam had both a written part and a practical part.  
Two weeks before their first exam Sasuke and Naruto began studying for the exam. Since Sasuke was spending most of his time at Naruto’s apartment they would study together.  
“So what do you plan on doing at the exam?” Sasuke asked rather concerned. If Naruto’s grades at this exam were as bad as the graded he got thus far he was in big trouble.  
“What do you mean?” Naruto got his books, notes and a white envelope from his bag and put them on the table.   
“Naru, if you mess this exam like you do everything else you’re going to fail.” Sasuke warned him as he too was getting ready for their study session.  
Naruto picked the envelope from the table and looked for a name on both sides. It didn’t belong to him and he wasn’t sure how it ended up in his bag. There was no name on it so he figured he had to open it in order to find out if it was addressed to him or not. “So now I’m Naru not dobe?”  
“I’m serious.”  
“Me too. I’m not going to fail so don’t worry. Most people assume I can’t even read and write so it’ll be fine if I barely pass.” Sasuke sighed. “So then should I call you Sasu?” Naruto smirked and received a glare from the other boy. He unfolded the paper that was in the envelope and began reading.  
“What’s that?” Sasuke asked but didn’t get an answer. When Naruto’s hands began trembling as he held the paper though, Sasuke became concerned. “Naruto!”  
Finishing reading the letter Naruto fell on his knees on the floor and Sasuke jumped by his side. He grabbed the letter from the blonde’s hand and began reading.

Uzumaki Naruto,

I assume you don’t know why everyone in the village hates you but because I’m a nice person I’ll do you a favor and tell you. It’s because you are the container of the Kyuubi, the demon fox that attacked the village seven years ago destroying half the village and killing many people in the process, ninja and civil alike.  
The Hokage did not want you to know this because he didn’t want you to feel guilty but many people think that you should know so I’m not doing this just for my sake. Many children were left orphans after that attack, your teacher included.  
Don’t you feel sorry for what you did? Do you still have the guts to show your face in front of that man at school every day knowing that your face reminds him of his dead parents?  
Do you want to know what I think? What most people in the village think?  
We think you should die.

Sasuke made the hand signs for a katon jutsu and burned the letter to ashes that fell on the floor.  
“Don’t listen to that bullshit.” Naruto looked at him with dead blue eyes. Sasuke had never seen Naruto’s eyes like that and he never wanted to see them like that again. He loved the blue eyes full of light not with that shade of grey they had at the moment.  
“What if they’re right?”  
“Are you just going to believe what’s written in a letter that is not even signed?  
Naruto molded chakra in his fingers just like he learned at the academy. They didn’t start learning jutsu yet but they did learn how to mold chakra and how to make hand seals. With the other hand he raised his shirt until his stomach was bare and Sasuke could clearly see the seal in red ink that was there. As soon as he stopped molding chakra the seal disappeared and he let his shirt down once again.  
“I first saw this when I was practicing molding chakra but I didn’t know what it meant. I think this letter is the answer though. As I thought, you should stay away from me.” Sasuke grabbed Naruto’s shoulders and shook him hard.  
“Is that what you want?” he yelled “Is that what you really want?” Naruto couldn’t hold his tears any longer and they fell down his scarred cheeks then on his black shirt. “Because that’s not what I want.” Sasuke was about to cry too but he didn’t want Naruto to see him like that. Not now when he had to be strong for both of them. He lowered his head so that his bangs covered his eyes but did not let Naruto go. “I want to always be by your side and I want to be here for you.” His voice was lower now that he has calmed down a little. “Don’t push me away.”  
“I don’t want you to leave me either.” Naruto whispered.  
“Then don’t tell me to stay away from you. I’m tired of hearing that.” Naruto gently grabbed Sasuke’s arms and the raven let go of his grip then Naruto laced their fingers together.  
“I’m relieved you don’t care what I am.”  
“You’re a person, my best friend not some monster even if you are the container.”  
“We’d better get some studying done.” Naruto said whipping the tears from his face and standing up.

They decided to call it a day after studying for long hours. Almost a week has passed since Naruto got the letter and it was already Friday.  
“Are you staying tonight?”  
“Yeah.” Naruto went to the kitchen to start dinner while Sasuke cleaned the living room from all the books, notes and scrolls scattered on the floor and on the small coffee table in front of the couch. He knew that Naruto didn’t mind the mess but he didn’t like it although he wouldn’t call himself a neat freak and besides he figured that he should make himself useful since he spent so much time there.  
Finishing with the cleaning and having their books piled up in neat stashes on the table he went in the kitchen where Naruto was getting their dinner ready. Before Sasuke ate Naruto’s food he would have never guessed the boy could cook because Sasuke sure couldn’t, he never had to. Naruto on the other hand was a different story having living alone since he was four he had to learn how to cook if he wanted a decent meal and his cooking was pretty good too. Sasuke liked his mother’s cooking more but he would rather eat with Naruto than go home just to have his mother cook for him.  
“Ne, Sasuke?”  
“Yeah?”  
“Are your parents ok with you spending so much time away from home? I don’t mind, in fact I like it but…you know?”  
“My father and I are not on speaking terms right now.” Naruto gave him a concerned look but Sasuke was ok, he was used to it already. He slowly began to accept that he was a disappointment. It had been impossible for him to do so when he was the only problem, the fact that he had not activated his sharingan or the fact that he could not perform advanced jutsu like Itachi had at his age. That only made him work harder until he reached the standards and never accept his fate. But when the issue became his relationship with Naruto he realized that he didn’t care anymore that his father disowned him.  
He still wanted to become stronger and he worked hard to achieve that but it was not to please his father.  
“Are you ok with that? I mean you should try and talk to him and make things right.”  
“I’m fine and I doubt we can make things right between us anymore.”  
“You have a father, you should at least try!” Naruto put the knife he used to cut the fish on the counter “Sorry, I said too much.”  
“My father and I are not on speaking terms because you and I are friends and I won’t give that up.” Just as Sasuke expected Naruto felt guilty but he had to tell the blonde the truth eventually. “And if you blame yourself for that I’m going to beat your sorry ass until you understand that it’s not your fault.” A small laugh escaped Naruto’s lips probably because he knew that Sasuke could keep that promise. “It’s his fault for making assumptions about you without actually knowing you. Now do you need any help with that because as much as I like to watch you and annoy you I’m getting hungry?” Naruto laughed again.  
“Do you even know how to handle a knife?”  
“Of course I do. I’m a ninja.”  
“A kitchen knife, Sasuke not a kunai.”  
“I can handle it.” Naruto gave him a skeptic look.  
“On second though you should better cook the rice.” Sasuke felt really embarrassed and his pride was tainted so he decided to start learning how to cook too.

Iruka walked among the desks returning the exam papers so that each student could see their grades and what mistakes they made. As more students got their papers the class became more restless. Everyone wanted to know how everyone else did.  
When Iruka put the paper in front of the pink haired girl, her friend Ino almost jumped on her shoulder to see the grade but when Ino’s paper was returned she pouted.  
“Only 95?”  
“If you’re not satisfied read and see what mistakes you made.”  
Kiba almost jumped from his seat when he got his paper, waking Shikamaru from his slumber. The boy didn’t even wake up to look at the paper placed beside him with a perfect score on it.  
“What are you so excited about dog-breath?” the irritated Shikamaru asked. He didn’t appreciate being disturbed.  
“I got a 75.”  
“Great so I assume your mom won’t beat the crap out of you for failing.” The lazy boy added.  
“Are you kidding? You need a 55 to pass and I have 75 I might even get a present.” Shikamaru rolled his eyes at his idiotic friend’s antics.  
“My mom said that she will cook my favorite dinner if I get at least 80.” Chouji interfered from beside Shikamaru as he got his own paper. “And look at this? I got an 85.”  
Sasuke got his paper with a perfect score but did not feel exited at all. He was expecting it after all. Naruto on the other hand did not receive his paper as quietly. He jumped on his seat and thrust the paper under Sasuke’s eyes.  
“See this?” he said louder than necessary drawing attention upon himself “You didn’t think I could do it.”  
Sasuke raised an eyebrow at him then looked at the paper. There were red marks everywhere and on the upper right corner was a 55 circled in red.  
“55? Really impressive.”  
Several people started to laugh misunderstanding what was going on. They assumed that Sasuke didn’t believe that Naruto could pass, after all that was what most of them assumed too but what impressed Sasuke was the fact that Naruto gave just enough right answers to get a 55. He knew that Naruto could do much better than that but the blonde had told him the previous day that he would nail the exam which Sasuke didn’t believe he could do considering the fact that they didn’t know how many points were given for each subject.  
“Tomorrow will be the practice exam so make sure you know all hand seals and practice throwing kunai and shuriken on fix targets.” Iruka announced.  
“Do you want to go to the training grounds after school to practice?” Naruto asked and Sasuke nodded.  
As they left the school building Itachi approached the two boys taking them by surprise.  
“Sasuke, this has gone far enough. You have to come home.” Itachi didn’t pay Naruto any attention but the blonde waited patiently knowing that it wasn’t his place to interfere in family related problems.  
“Has father sent you to fetch me?” Sasuke said with venom in his voice.  
“Mother is worried. She doesn’t know where you spend all the time you are not home and that doesn’t help her health.” Sasuke’s expression softened a little. He didn’t want his mother to be hurt although it made him sad that she couldn’t accept his relationship with Naruto. “You’ve never been away for a whole week before.”  
“Naruto and I were studying for the exams, that’s all.”  
“I see. I hope they went well.”  
“The practice exam is tomorrow. Naruto and I are on our way to the training ground right now.”  
“Do you mind if I join you?” Sasuke did not answer the question instead he grabbed Naruto’s hand and they went to the training grounds followed quietly by Itachi.  
Sasuke and Naruto began to spar. Sasuke was the first to attack and Naruto just dodged and blocked for a while. To the untrained eye it would have looked like Sasuke had the upper hand as the stronger of the two but Naruto knew that Sasuke needed to release some steam so he gave him the opportunity to do just that.  
They didn’t speak although they usually did when they sparred, taunting and insulting each other playfully but Sasuke was not in the mood for that and Naruto understood.  
“I don’t believe tomorrow’s exam involves sparring.” Itachi noted only to have a kunai thrown his way. It would have grazed his neck if he didn’t lower his head to the left.  
“Sitting ducks are no challenge for us.” Sasuke said throwing several shuriken at Naruto.  
Eventually they got tired and Naruto was the first to fall on the ground panting then Sasuke followed falling on top of Naruto. He laid his head on Naruto’s chest as he was trying to catch his breath and felt Naruto’s hand on his forehead.  
“Will you go home?” Naruto asked loud enough for Sasuke to hear but not loud enough for Itachi to hear. He laced his fingers with Naruto.  
“Yeah, for now.” Standing up he went to where Itachi stood and together they went home.  
The next day Sasuke didn’t go to pick Naruto at his apartment as he usually did when he spent the night at home instead they met at school right before the exam.  
Looking at him Naruto grew concerned. “Are you alright?”  
“Yeah, just a head ache.”  
“Is everything alright at home? Is your mom alright?”  
“Yeah don’t worry.”  
“Are you sure you’re alright? Your eyes are red.”  
That day Sasuke activated his sharingan but why didn’t that make him happy?


	4. Chapter 4

Eight year old Sasuke and Naruto were on the training grounds but this time it wasn’t to spar. Earlier that day at school Naruto whispered in Sasuke’s ear that he had something important to tell him but only when they were alone. Naruto suggested that they go to the training grounds and so they did then he pulled a scroll from his bag and spread it on the ground.  
Sasuke looked carefully at the scroll before crossing his arms over his chest.  
“You’re insane.” Naruto said nothing but he didn’t need to. The scroll described in detail with images and everything a jutsu. It was obvious that Naruto wanted to learn that jutsu. Sasuke didn’t know how the boy got the scroll nor did he want to know because no matter how you put it the fact that Naruto had the scroll in his possession was insane.  
“Why?” Naruto was asking why? Sasuke could fill ten volumes with reasons, the problem was where to start.   
“It’s an A rank jutsu, Naruto. You can’t even do the henge or kawarimi. Don’t you think you should start with that?”  
“And you can.”  
“Yes.”  
“But you are not the container of the nine tailed beast.”  
“So what? I can still beat your ass.”  
“That’s not the point. The point is that my chakra control is terrible and I think the seal has something to do with it.” For the first time since they arrived there Sasuke felt that Naruto might have a point.  
“How can you tell?”  
“I’ve been reading stuff here and there. I even questioned Tsunade baa-chan at the hospital. Since you don’t practically live in my apartment I have a lot of free time.” Sasuke laughed.  
“I thought you were using that time to pull pranks on the villagers.”  
It’s been almost a year since Sasuke stopped spending the nights in Naruto’s apartment. His mother had been really concerned for him and did her best to convince him to return home for good. She tried really hard to get over her preconception that Naruto was a bad influence on Sasuke too and even told Sasuke to invite Naruto over to their house a few times when Itachi and her husband were away on missions.  
Sasuke of course asked Naruto to come for dinner but Naruto refused saying that he was not really welcomed there. He didn’t hold it against Naruto though. The boys were however as close as always spending their time at school together, training and sparring together and sometimes even studying together.  
“That’s when I want to take a break.” Naruto said it on a playful tone but Sasuke knew the deeper meaning. He was pulling pranks when he was tired of their abuse however his pranks were never harmful unlike what they did to him.  
“So what else do you know?”  
“Well the bijuu are beings with a huge amount of chakra but the seal is supposed to prevent that from leaking. However the seal is also preventing my chakra to mix with Kyuubi’s.”  
“So then you should be able to only use your chakra.”  
“But I can’t. Do you remember when Iruka taught us how to mold chakra? How to concentrate on how it feels and remember that feeling?”  
“Yeah. So?”  
“He described how it feels when you mold chakra but I never felt it like that. I didn’t realize at the time but what if the chakra I’m using is not mine and that’s why I can’t control it properly.”  
“So you’re saying that you use Kyuubi’s chakra? But didn’t you just say the seal is preventing it from leaking?”  
“It’s preventing it from leaking; from being released without my will but if I mold it…”   
“Something still doesn’t make sense. It makes sense that the human container should be able to control the beast’s chakra otherwise there would be no use for a human container but why can’t you use your own chakra?”  
“I didn’t figure that out yet. Now do you remember when we were told that the complexity of jutsu performed should be according to the person’s chakra reserves?”  
“Of course. If you use too much chakra you die. That’s exactly why I told you that learning this jutsu is insane.”   
Naruto grinned. “Not if you use the chakra of a tailed beast.”   
Taking a stance and molding chakra Naruto performed the hand seals as described in the scroll for the tajuu kage bunshin no jutsu. The first few times it didn’t work and Sasuke was starting to believe that Naruto may have been wrong but after a while the training ground was filled with shadow clones all of the sudden.   
Panting, Naruto leaned against a tree and grinned satisfied. Sasuke smiled back at him.  
“Where did you get that scroll from anyway?” Sasuke asked eventually.  
“Do you want to know?” he nodded “Do you really want to know?” Naruto teased.  
“Tell me already!”  
“From the Hokage Tower. I sneaked in last night and borrowed it.” Sasuke gave him a warning look “Don’t worry I’ll put it back.”

Sasuke and Naruto were about leave at the end of the school day when Naruto heard his name being called.  
“What is it Mizuki sensei?” he asked the man he recognized as one of the teachers at the Academy.  
Mizuki looked at Sasuke briefly then addressed Naruto “Can I have a word with you in private?” Naruto looked at Sasuke and without a word the raven went to wait for him in the school yard. As soon as Sasuke was out of sight Naruto gave the teacher his full attention. “I thought that you might want to know who your parents are.” Naruto gave him a skeptic look.  
“Do you know who they are?”  
“No, but I know where you can find that information. Would you want to know?”  
“I guess so.”  
Mizuki looked left and right, making sure there was no one around who might overhear. “There’s a file in the Hokage’s office.”  
“Thanks.” When Naruto left school he was lost in thoughts. It was a good thing that Sasuke saw him getting out of the building and followed him because Naruto did not see him.  
“You ok?” the raven asked “What did he say?”  
“That there’s a file in the Hokage’s office where I can find information about my parents.”  
Sasuke looked at him rather concerned. “Are you going to look for it?”  
“I don’t know if I should, I mean why would Mizuki help me?”  
“You’re right. You probably shouldn’t trust him.”  
“I still want to try though, maybe he’s not lying.”  
Sasuke grabbed his hand and laced their fingers together. “I’ll support you whatever you decide.”  
“I think I’ll go. I need to know.”  
“Then I’ll go with you.”  
“If we get caught you’ll get in trouble. I don’t care if I get in trouble but I can’t let that happen to you.”  
“I wasn’t asking you, I was telling you and that’s final.” Naruto sighed but at the same time he felt happy that Sasuke would do that for him.  
That night Sasuke sneaked out of his room for the first time in his life. Getting out of the Uchiha district he made his way full speed to the Hokage Tower where Naruto was waiting for him.  
After warning him to not make a noise and conceal his chakra, Naruto led him through the building’s ventilation shafts.  
“I’ve never sneaked in his office before but it should be this way.” Naruto whispered as they got closer to the office. Opening the grid that was covering the shaft Naruto jumped down into the office followed by Sasuke. They looked around to figure out where to start looking for the file and Naruto started looking in the shelves that covered one wall while Sasuke searched the desk.  
What they didn’t know was that some important files were marked with seals that would alert the ambu once they were opened. Sasuke was the first to open such a file and before they could even realize what was going on two ambu grabbed them by their collars.  
“Care to explain what you are doing here?” the ambu wearing a weasel mask asked but Sasuke and Naruto didn’t say a word.  
“If you don’t tell us what’s going on I’m afraid we will have to inform the Hokage about this and then you will have to talk.” The other ambu with a dog mask added but he wasn’t convincing enough.  
“I’ll keep an eye on them Hound, you go and get Ibiki. He’ll know how to deal with them.” Weasel suggested and Hound seemed to consider this option. Sasuke raised his eyes from the ground for the first time since they were caught and gave Naruto a gentle nudge, drawing his attention.   
“I think we should talk. You don’t want to be interrogated by Ibiki, trust me.” Naruto didn’t know who Ibiki was but he didn’t have time to ask Sasuke either, he trusted Sasuke though so he told the ambu the whole story and they were released.  
The next day they heard about it at school. Mizuki had been arrested for breaking the law and for betrayal. 

Naruto and Sasuke had just finished doing Naruto’s shopping. After the incident that led to them being friends Sasuke did Naruto’s shopping very often since Naruto was usually cheated either by receiving expired food or by getting things for a higher price than everyone else. They were on their way to Naruto’s apartment when they spotted a suspicious man.  
They were passing by an inn with hot spring at the edge of the village when they noticed the man trying to peep at the women bathing in the hot spring. He had a notebook and pen in his hand and Naruto stopped to give him a suspicious look. The boys were standing right behind him but the man didn’t seem to have noticed them at all.  
“Hey pervert!” Naruto’s voice made the man jump in surprise since he probably assumed that he was alone.  
“Hush!” the man said “I don’t want them to hear us!” the man looked less than happy that he was discovered.  
“I bet you don’t you pervert. Give me a reason not to yell right now.” The man thought for a while then his face brightened up at the brilliant idea. Taking a pink book from his bag he presented it to the boys.  
“I’ll give you a copy of my latest book with autograph.” Sasuke gave the book a skeptical look and Naruto looked disgusted.  
“Icha Icha Harem? Why would you think we want that?” Naruto exaggerated his gestures to look even more disgusted than he actually was and annoy the guy but the old man didn’t seem angered at all.  
“Why wouldn’t you? You’re boys, right?”  
“We’re eight.” Sasuke cut him off making the man rethink his strategy. He began to mumble for himself thinking how he can bribe two eight year olds who are not interested in porn.  
“I suppose that makes sense…What about candy?”  
“We’re ninja” Sasuke began “We won’t keep our mouth shut for candy.”  
“Ninja huh? Then how about I teach you a jutsu.”  
“Go on.” Naruto encouraged the man.  
“How about a bunshin? They only teach that in the Academy in the last year.”  
“My brother taught me that a few months ago.” Sasuke pointed out.  
“He did, didn’t he? And what might your names be?”  
“Uchiha Sasuke.”  
“Uzumaki Naruto.”  
“Naruto? You don’t say?” the man looked genuinely surprised at the name.  
“How do you know my name?” Naruto asked puzzled.  
“From the Hokage of course.”  
Taking the boys further away from the hot spring the man explained that his name was Jiraya and that he had been Sandaime’s student and Yondaime’s teacher. It’s needless to say that the boys were left speechless not because of the honor of being in the presence of such a prestigious person but because they never expected a hokage’s teacher and a hokage’s student to be a pervert. “And I was doing research for my next book, not peeping.” He concluded but he didn’t convince the boys. “So what do you want to learn then?” Naruto thought for a while but couldn’t make up his mind. Basically he could only do one jutsu, the tajuu kage bunshin but he didn’t want to learn something that they will learn in the Academy anyway. He wanted to learn a cool jutsu something like….  
“Teach us the kuchiose!” Sasuke demanded.  
“Maa, maa isn’t that a bit too hard for you?” But Sasuke wouldn’t bulge.  
“That or we tell the women you were peeping.”  
A few hours later Jiraya and the boys were standing at the edge of the forest and both boys had a contract scroll in their hand each. Sasuke’s contract was with snakes and Naruto’s was with frogs. Sasuke had successfully performed a summon but Naruto just couldn’t do it. It frustrated him to no end that the jutsu didn’t require more chakra so that he would be able to perform it too but there was nothing he could do.  
“Sasuke you’re a natural.” Jiraya congratulated Sasuke on his performance but the boy just looked at Naruto who couldn’t hide his frustration.  
Following Sasuke’s gaze Jiraya’s eyes landed on Naruto who was molding chakra for another attempt.  
“Naruto, is there any jutsu you can do?” Jiraya asked after another failed attempt.  
“Just one.” Naruto pouted.  
“Show me!” Making the familiar hand seals Naruto made fifty shadow clones making the man fall on his butt with his mouth opened in awe.  
“I think I know the problem.” Getting up he whipped the dust off of his clothes. Then he raised Naruto’s shirt and molding chakra on the tip of his fingers he thrust them in Naruto’s stomach making the boy gasp in pain. However that pain didn’t last long and Naruto began to feel his chakra flow differently.  
He tried to do the kuchiose again and this time he succeeded in summoning the biggest frog he had ever seen. The frog, named Gamabunta had not been happy to be summoned for nothing and left.


	5. Chapter 5

Naruto and Sasuke were in Naruto’s bedroom laid on the bed. Sasuke’s head was on Naruto’s chest and the blonde was absentmindedly playing with the black bangs.  
“Don’t you think you’re exaggerating? How bad can it be? It’s just a birthday party.” Naruto tried to reason with his best friend.  
Sasuke had come to his apartment rather late looking gloomy and a bit angry. Naruto had asked if everything was alright at home and the raven assured him that things were as fine as they can be but his father had an unreasonable request. Naruto gave him a questioning look and asked him to detail on the subject.  
“Why should I go to Kiba’s party? We’re not even friends.”  
“Because as a clan member you should have relations with other clans. But you already know that don’t you?”  
Sasuke snorted “You sound like Itachi. Besides I’m not even going to be the head of our clan, Itachi is. He should take care of clan relations. ”  
“I know you don’t have many friends but you should try and make some.”   
Sasuke turned his head to give Naruto a skeptic look. “Are you serious?”   
Naruto shrugged. “Why not?”   
Sasuke got up and moved on top of Naruto with both knees on either side of Naruto’s legs and his hands on both sides of Naruto’s torso. He looked down into the questioning blue eyes. “Would you really be ok with that?”  
“I’m not that selfish Sasuke. I doubt I can have any other friends but I’m not going to just keep you for myself because I would feel lonely without you.” Sasuke smirked.  
“So you admit that you would feel lonely without me.” Naruto grabbed a pillow and threw it in Sasuke’s face.  
“Of course I would.” Grabbing the pillow Sasuke decided to make himself more comfortable on top of Naruto’s chest.  
“I’m not refusing other relationships because of you. I’m just not interested.”  
“So then why me?”  
“I don’t know. I just like being around you. There’s something about you and Itachi that I can’t explain.”  
“It won’t hurt to give them a chance, at least this once.”

Sasuke was standing in a corner of the large room with a glass of orange juice in his hand. He hoped that no one would notice him until it was time to leave but he had no such luck. His fan girls Ino and Sakura seemed to have Sasuke radars because they spotted him as soon as they entered the room.  
The two girls have been expressing their love for him for months now with every occasion they had. At school they would send him notes, during recess they would ask him to join them for lunch. Of course he refused them every time but then they changed their strategy and joined him and Naruto at lunch. On these occasions they would completely ignore Naruto in the best case scenario and insult him in the worst case scenario but of course Sasuke would not let them do that although Naruto took every insult without a word.  
“I’m glad we can talk without him being around.” Ino said stressing the word ‘him’.  
“Yeah, why do you even stay around him? Everyone knows he’s bad news.” Sasuke raised an eyebrow at Sakura.  
“Bad news?”  
Ino leaned closer to him and whispered in his ear “Everyone in the village says he’s a demon. My parents warned me to stay away from him when we started Academy but I thought you knew that by now.”  
Sasuke figured that they had no idea what they were talking about and felt disgusted but then remembered the reason why he was there in the first place so he decided to be civil just this once.  
“You don’t say? And what did he do?”  
“My mom didn’t say more than that but everyone else in our class was told to stay away from him. Weren’t you?”  
“I was but I’ve known him since before my brother or father warned me and I assure you he’s harmless.”  
“He’s an idiot who can’t even read properly since he had no one to teach him how but that doesn’t make him harmless.” Sakura retorted and Sasuke squeezed the glass he was holding. If it was up to him he would have told these girls a thing or two about what Naruto can do but that was Naruto’s decision. As long as he chose to pretend to be an idiot Sasuke had no right to tell anyone the truth. “They say that his parents abandoned him at birth because he was a monster.”  
“Who said that?”  
“The kids at the Academy.”  
The party went on and more and more people came to talk to him. After Sakura and Ino almost no one asked him about his relationship with Naruto and he figured that it had not been such a horrible experience. He realized for example that Shikamaru was a person he could have a nice conversation with when he was wide awake and that he and his best friend Chouji didn’t really care about the stuff people said about Naruto. Shikamaru had confessed that although he was also told to stay away from the boy by his mother he didn’t have anything against him, it was just that Naruto was too loud for his personal liking and having Kiba hanging out with them uninvited was more than enough for him. That started an argument between Kiba and Shikamaru but thanks to Chouji it died out fast.  
Hinata had asked him where Naruto was and when he told her that he had not been invited she lowered her head whispering a barely audible ‘ I see’ and left to her cousin’s side. Sasuke knew Neji Hyuuga or better said he knew of him just as well as he knew of many other children from Konoha’s clans. He had also seen him at the academy since he was one year older.  
Shino Aburame was a rather quiet boy and although he joined their group he barely said anything.  
He started to enjoy the company of a small group that included Shaikamaru, Shino, Chouji and Kiba when he felt a pair of arms being wrapped around his neck. His body became tensed at the unusual feeling that he found unpleasant. The only ones that he ever allowed to invade his personal space like that were Itachi and Naruto although Itachi barely ever hugged him anymore. Lately it was only Naruto but he never wrapped his arms around Sasuke’s neck making it hard for him to breathe. He wanted to turn around and see who it was but could not do that much in the tight embrace.  
“Can I bring you something to drink Sasuke?” Sakura singed in his ear too loud and too close.  
“Could you let go of me?” he asked politely but the girl didn’t show signs that she would move any time soon, not until Ino interfered that is. Then they started arguing, like they often did at school, about who Sasuke likes more and who is going to be on his team when they graduate.  
Sasuke did not care about their conversation but they were too loud not to be heard. Ino for instance said that her chances of being on Sasuke’s team were higher because she wasn’t a ‘perfect score princess’ and they would never put two of the best students in class on the same team. Sakura argued that if they want an elite team they would.  
The party was eventually over and Sasuke went to Naruto’s apartment like he said he would. Being just the two of them was just what he needed.  
“Are you hungry?” Naruto asked him. He was about to cook lunch when Sasuke came from the party.  
“No. I ate something at Kiba’s.”  
“Then wait here, I’ll be right back.” Sasuke made himself comfortable on Naruto’s couch and closed his eyes thinking about the day which was a rather exhausting experience.  
Soon after that Naruto came back with a cup of instant ramen. Opening his eyes at the sudden movement in the room, Sasuke gave him a long questioning look.  
“Are you seriously going to eat that?” Naruto looked at his ramen puzzled.  
“What’s wrong with it?”  
“I thought you said you were going to cook.”  
Naruto sat down on the couch and began slurping his noodles. “I would have if you were hungry but since you said you weren’t I didn’t want to make you wait.”  
“Baka.” Sasuke shifted on the couch until he was comfortably laid with his head on Naruto’s knees. He looked at the blonde but couldn’t see his face properly because of the cup he was holding.  
“So are you going to tell me how it was?” Sasuke shrugged.   
“Not very pleasant, not extremely horrible.” Naruto paused from eating for a moment to look at his friend.  
“Are you going to elaborate?”  
“Sure. Let’s just say that Shikamaru and Chouji are not that bad, I don’t think that Shino is either. Kiba is loud and annoying though. Hinata asked about you and seemed disappointed when I told her that you were not invited and Ino and Sakura are as annoying as ever.” Naruto stopped eating again and gave him a puzzled look.  
“Hianata asked about me?”  
“Yeah, I think she likes you.” Naruto almost choked with noodles. “Do you like her too?” Naruto put the now empty cup away.  
“No.” He paused for a moment trying to find the best words to express what he wanted to say. “I mean…I don’t hate her, I don’t hate any of them but I can’t bring myself to like them either. My experience with this village is not a pleasant one. Most people, with very few exceptions hate me and don’t hesitate to show it so my feelings for people resume to being grateful to those who are good to me and disliking the ones who are mean to me. I don’t pay attention to those who just leave me alone.” Reaching out for the blonde, Sasuke put a hand on his cheek and Naruto leaned under the touch.  
“One day they will see you for who you really are then you will be able to have more friends.” Naruto stayed quiet feeling touched by Sasuke’s words. A voice in his mind said that it will definitely happen, another said that it can’t happen. “You want that, don’t you? You want to have friends more than I do.”  
“I suppose, but for now having you is enough. I don’t know if you are aware what you did for me.”  
Sasuke moved his hand away from Naruto’s cheek and let it rest on his stomach where the other one was. “You never told me although I think I understand. I mean your every gesture shows that you care.”  
“I was in a dark place Sasuke. The only persons who had been nice to me until then was Teuchi oji san and Ayame chan.”  
“The man from the ramen stand?”  
“Yes. There was also the Hokage and Tsunade baa chan from the hospital but I rarely saw them. I never went to the hospital when the villagers attacked me and they were too busy to drop by.”  
Sasuke wrapped his hands around Naruto and laid his head on the blonde’s chest. “I’ll never let you fall in that dark place again.” Naruto put a hand on Sasuke’ s head stroking it gently.  
“I know.”


	6. Chapter 6

Nine year old Naruto had fallen on his knees and was begging Jiraya to teach him another jutsu but the ero senin as Naruto named him said that he had no time for that since he was a popular writer with deadlines to meet. Naruto wanted to roll his eyes and say something sarcastic but refrained from doing so since that would not help his case at all, on the contrary.  
Sasuke was standing behind Naruto and looked rather amused at the blonde but he understood his friend’s desperation. Children born in clans were taught their clan’s specialties at home and received training with their clan members besides the basics they learned at the Academy. Naruto did not have such an opportunity so he clenched his fists on every little chance he got.  
“I told you I’m busy.” Jiraya repeated once again.  
“What if I give you some inspiration for your book.” Naruto tried to reason.  
“I highly doubt you can do that. I need curves my boy” Jiraya emphasized his words by making a female silhouette with his hands in the air “I need beauty for my art, I need romance. You know nothing about it, you’re just a nine year old brat.” Standing up, Naruto made some hand seals and Sasuke covered his eyes knowing very well what was coming.  
Four naked female versions of Naruto with long pigtails encircled the perverted old man grabbing his arms and embracing him. “Will you teach me now?” They all asked in unison with a seductive tone. Jiraya’s nose was bleeding but he couldn’t move to do anything about it. He probably didn’t even notice, Sasuke thought as he looked at the man who was in heaven. “Will you?” One of the girls who Sasuke knew was the real Naruto gently repeated in the man’s ear with a pleasant girly voice.  
“I will.” As soon as the words were said the magic surrounding Jiraya disappeared as Naruto released the jutsu.  
“See, I told you that studying that stuff would eventually pay off.” Naruto addressed Sasuke.  
“I never thought you’d be right on this one.”  
“He’s simpleminded. This trick was bound to work.”  
Sasuke and Naruto had been working on Naruto’s oiroke no jutsu for some time. It was just a henge but getting the appealing, slender figure of a sexy girl just right took some time. Sasuke was asked mostly to give his opinion but in the end he also made a perfect female version of himself. What Sasuke didn’t nail though was the attitude. He couldn’t pull off that seductive voice Naruto had and Naruto told him that he had to work on his acting skills. “So what will you teach me?” Naruto asked the man who was just getting out of the trance.  
“You mean now?”  
“Yeah, now.”  
Jiraya shook his head “You just gave me material for a whole chapter, I have to write it down before I forget. Now why don’t you make yourselves useful and help me sell my books.  
“Say what now?” Naruto asked with disbelief. “After I went through all that you want me to sell your books.” Before he managed to finish his sentence though Jiraya was already pushing them towards a book stand filled with stacks of Icha Icha volumes.  
“Icha Icha Paradise, Icha Icha Violence, Icha Icha Harem, Icha Icha Incest… “ Sasuke read some of the titles “Is that all you write?”  
Jiraya took a seat at a small camping table that was next to the stand and began writing. “Of course.”  
“And how do you expect us to advertise this?”  
“Think of it as a mission and figure it out.”  
Sasuke and Naruto were getting rather bored standing behind the stand and doing nothing. On a rare occasion someone would stop by and buy a book but most people who looked their way just gave Naruto the usual dirty look.  
“You don’t have to get dragged into this.” Naruto eventually said.  
“I know, but I have nothing better to do anyway.” Their conversation was interrupted by Jiraya who was rather displeased with how many books they sell and promised to teach Naruto a more powerful jutsu if they sell many books.  
“You could have gone to train with Shikamaru and Chouji. They invited you didn’t they?”  
“Yeah.”   
Naruto gave him a devilish smile. “But since you’re here I’m going to use you to sell this crap.” He said the last words only for Sasuke’s ears since he didn’t want Jiraya to hear him call his books ‘crap’. Naruto made a few hand seals and his female version wearing an orange dress that revealed all her perfect curves appeared in front of Sasuke.  
“Do I have to transform too?”  
“I don’t care what you do as long as we sell these books.” Sasuke transformed in an older version of himself and wrapped his hands around Naruto from behind like he did many times before although he had never done it with a female Naruto.  
“I would rather not be a girl. Besides it feels nice like this.” He liked how Naruto’s body felt against his chest, how well the smaller body fit in his arms and what a soothing feeling he got from this contact.  
Naruto turned to look at Sasuke “So…why did you refuse Shikamaru? You are getting along well at school.” Getting drowned in the deep blue eyes Sasuke stroke Naruto’s cheek with his thumb. “You look weird without the scars.”  
“People will know who I am if I have them and that won’t sell books. But answer my question, teme.” Their conversation was interrupted by a bunch of customers, then they spotted a group of girls looking their way and giggling on the other side of the sidewalk. “I didn’t feel like it. Besides Shikamaru and I are not that close.”  
“And how are you supposed to bond with him if you refuse such opportunity? Shikamaru is not only a Nara but also a genius. He would be a better sparring opponent for you than me.”  
“Maybe I’ll take his invitation next time.”  
One Icha Icha chapter later and with the mission accomplished, they were ready to go to a more secluded place to begin Naruto’s training.  
“Now pay attention my boy.” Jiraya took a stance so that Naruto could clearly see his hand. As Naruto watched with enthusiasm a thin chakra string turned into a yarn in the man’s palm and it was getting bigger and bigger. When it was the size of a tennis ball Jiraya smashed it into a tree, making a whole in the process.  
“Wow.” Naruto exclaimed in awe.  
“You’re not going to do this at first. You need to know how to control the chakra to make the rasengan so you’re going to start by braking balloons.” He got some balloons out of his pocket and filled them with water.  
“Balloons?” Naruto caught a balloon that was thrown his way.  
“Now hold it in your hand and try to break it with chakra and remember to not apply force. When you get that right come and look for me again.” With that Jiraya left the two boys alone with a bunch of balloons.  
Naruto sighed and after gathering the balloons he and Sasuke went home.

“Sasuke you have to tell us who that girl was?” Ino demanded. They were at school the day after Sasuke and Naruto helped Jiraya sell his perverted books and Sasuke barely reached his desk at the back of the classroom when Sakura and Ino almost jumped on him demanding answers.  
He had tried to pretend he didn’t know what they were talking about but it didn’t work so he told them that she was a girl that Jiraya brought to help sell his books.  
“And you think we’re going to believe that?” Sakura asked.  
“That man is selling porn. How in the hell do you advertise porn?” The girls gave each other a questioning look.  
“So you don’t know her?” Ino asked but before Sasuke could answer Sakura came with a question of her own.  
“But do you like her?”  
“I’ve never thought about that.” This conversation was making Sasuke rather annoyed “I was thinking only about a way to advertise the books.”  
“So who came with the idea that you should play lovely-dovely?”  
“We both did.” He answered sincerely.  
“Then you’re a pretty good actor, Sasuke.” If they only knew how much he sucked at acting, Sasuke thought but he would never tell them about the blonde girl’s real identity.  
“How did you end up advertising porn books is what I would like to know?” Shikamaru interfered. Several eyes were already on Sasuke because of the commotion the two girls started.  
“The man is a ninja and he’s teaching me a jutsu. That’s what he asked for in return.”  
That settled the atmosphere a little and Sasuke was able to get ready for class.  
“Your acting skills are improving.” He gave Naruto a puzzled look and the blonde smiled at him.   
”They would have killed you if they knew it was you.”  
“But you, my prince in shining armor, saved me.” Naruto joked receiving a glare in return.  
“Will you cut it out?”

Ten year old Naruto was on top of the Hokage Mountain, his favorite place in the entire village, watching the sunrise.  
“I thought I’d find you here.” Naruto turned to look behind him surprised. He wasn’t expecting Sasuke so early in the morning and besides the raven concealed his chakra.  
“Happy birthday, Naru.” Naruto turned to look at the sun once again.  
“You know I hate my birthdays.” Sasuke made a few steps forward until they were standing side by side.  
“I do but I also wish I could change that.” They watched the sunrise together in silence but Sasuke could feel the tension in the atmosphere, a tension he usually didn’t feel around his best friend. “Do you remember how you used to say that nothing good ever happens on this day? You haven’t sad that in the past few years.”  
“I can’t say that when you’re spending the whole day with me.” Sasuke smiled at him. Naruto never needed much to be content, he probably wasn’t the happiest man on Earth and he had reasons not to be but he was content just with Sasuke by his side. Sasuke thought that wasn’t much, Naruto thought he was already asking for too much from his friend.  
“I wish you celebrated your birthdays like everyone else.”  
“Look who’s talking. You don’t celebrate yours either.” The sun was up in the sky and a few people got out of their houses, starting a new day of work and just like that the village was brought back to life.   
“If I don’t have a party it doesn’t mean I don’t celebrate them. Mother bakes me a cake and I get to do whatever I want on that day. I even get a present from Itachi.” Naruto laughed.  
“You usually spend the day with me from sunrise till dinner and I can never get you a decent present. You call that special?”  
“We always do whatever I want on that day. I don’t need more.” Naruto became serious suddenly.  
“Have you ever seen how many people go to visit the cemetery or the memorial on this day?” Sasuke put a hand on Naruto’s shoulder. “Everyone is mourning….how can I celebrate?” Sasuke cupped Naruto’s cheeks and leaned closer until their foreheads were touching.  
“If you blame yourself for this I’m going to kick your ass.”  
“I’m not blaming myself, I don’t even remember that day, it’s just that….it doesn’t feel right to be happy when everyone else is sad.” Sasuke wrapped his hands loosely around his neck.  
“That’s so like you.” He sighed and Naruto felt indignant.  
“What’s that supposed to mean?”  
“You don’t know how to be selfish.” Naruto gave him a sad smile.  
“And I thought I was.” Sasuke smiled back at him.  
“I have something for you.” Naruto’s blue eyes looked questioning at him. He had never brought Naruto a present before. It was a mutual understanding that if Naruto couldn’t buy him a nice present then Sasuke shouldn’t get him one either but this time he broke the rule. “And don’t say you won’t accept it.” He grabbed a small box from his pocket and held it front of him. “I wasn’t going to get you anything knowing how you feel about this. It was sudden, really. I saw it in a store and I just had to buy it.” He opened the box, revealing two matching silver pendants with black string necklaces. One pendant was shaped like a moon, half of it being decorated with moon stones while the other was shaped like a star decorated with yellow sun stone. “One is for you and you can take the one you like the most.”  
“But you already know which one you want to keep.” He did know. He had known when he first saw them that the one he wanted was the one that reminded him of Naruto. As if reading his mind Naruto said “Do you mind if I take the moon then?”


	7. Chapter 7

Eleven year old Naruto was dragging his feet as he followed Sasuke to the Academy. He never talked to Sasuke about this day but he wasn’t looking forward to it.  
His days at the Academy had been rather good. He didn’t make new friends but was never bullied since Sasuke would never allow such a thing to happen. His teacher, Iruka, had been good to him and although he would often scold Naruto for his bad grades and lack of improvement in taijutsu and ninjutsu, Naruto knew that the man was just concerned for him and was looking out for his wellbeing.  
When he had received that letter, years ago, he had believed for a while that Iruka might bare a grudge against him but as time passed he realized that was not the case. The man had been kind to him and treated him to ramen once in a while at the only place who would accept to serve him, Ichiraku.  
The years at the Academy had been the best in his life and he didn’t want that to end. Of course he wanted to graduate and become officially a genin but that kind of scared him. He was in a dilemma. What scared him the most was that he would be placed in a four men cell with people who hated him and he won’t have Sasuke by his side anymore. Up until then they had been inseparable but once they get missions they will be spending most of their time with their teams.  
Since he was unusually quiet Sasuke looked at his suspiciously. “Are you nervous?”  
“A little.”  
“Don’t worry, you have the skill to pass this exam.”  
“I guess.” Sasuke stopped and grabbed Naruto’s hand making the blonde stop too and give him a questioning look.   
“What’s wrong?” Naruto looked in Sasuke’s onyx eyes not knowing what to do. He didn’t want Sasuke to think that he was weak or that he was depending on him too much, not after he told Sasuke so many times that he should try and make other friends too.  
The raven wrapped his arms around Naruto’s neck and rest his forehead against Naruto’s. “You know you can tell me anything, right?” Naruto swallowed a lump in his throat.  
“I’m scared that they will separate us. Do you hate me for being so weak?”  
“Baka, I could never hate you. That scares me too but we have to be strong.”  
Hand in hand they made their way to the Academy to arrive just on time. Iruka made a speech that Naruto didn’t hear then they were asked to step outside and wait to be called in for the examination.  
Sasuke finished first and he came out of the classroom with a blue head band with Konoha’s leaf on it. According to the alphabetical order Naruto was next and when he came out the head band was nowhere in sight so many people assumed that he failed. Sakura made some rude comment but Sasuke was too concerned to tell her off.  
“You ok?”  
“It’s a fail or pass exam, Sasuke.”  
“That’s not what I meant.” Naruto lowered his head in shame.  
“Sorry, I’m still nervous.” Sasuke put a hand on Naruto’s shoulder to reassure him and Naruto put his own hand on top of it for the same reason. He knew that Sasuke was nervous too although he didn’t show, after all he had confessed to it.  
Everyone who passed the exam was invited back in the classroom and not few people were surprised to see Naruto following Sasuke. They took their usual seats and Naruto took the head band from his pocket and tied it on his forehead then grabbed Sasuke’s hand under the table squeezing it a bit. Sasuke did the same.   
When Iruka eventually entered the room he was holding a list of the teams but he didn’t start reading it right away instead he began a speech that Naruto couldn’t pay attention to. He just wanted this all to be over already so that he can go home.  
When Iruka’s speech was over he started reading the list. The silence was replaced with people’s different reactions at the outcome. Shikamaru sighed when it was announced that he will be with Chouji and Ino on the same team. It wasn’t because he was disappointed or something, as a matter of fact he was expecting it. The Yamanaka, Akimichi and Nara had been paired up for as long as he knew in what was generally called the Ino-Shika-Chou of Konoha. He sighed because Ino was troublesome. Kiba gave a loud ‘yes’ when he heard Hinata’s name along his but when the last name was Shino’s Hinata turned to look at Naruto. He didn’t notice though. Then Naruto’s name was called and he gave Iruka his full attention. Sakura and Sasuke’s name followed his and he felt relieved. If Sasuke was on his team he didn’t care who the jounin will be.  
Everyone went with their jounin teachers as soon as they came to get them but their team was left to wait.  
“Where is he? I’m tired of waiting.” Naruto moaned.  
“You think you’re the only one?” Sakura complained. “Sasuke and I are in the same boat but you don’t hear us complain.” She was not in a good mood. She thought she should be since the subject of her affection was on her team and she scored one point against Ino but Naruto managed to ruin her good mood.   
“I don’t mind if you do.” Naruto said.  
“And what good would it do? It wouldn’t bring our teacher faster.”  
“True, but bottling your feelings up like that doesn’t help.”  
“Look who’s talking.” Sasuke said only for Naruto to hear him and earned an elbow in his stomach.  
“You want me to express my feelings? Is that what you want? Well let me tell you something, Naruto. I would have been happy with any other boy in your place but you had to be on my team because Sasuke and I have perfect scores and you are a loser. The teams need to be balanced so they put the best in class with the dead lasts. Honestly I don’t even know how you passed the exam.” Naruto looked at her in awe. Sasuke wanted to stop her before she went that far but something told him Naruto didn’t want that so he let her talk.  
“That’s a good start for us as a team. Now I know how you feel.”  
“We won’t know who the best is until we start our missions.” Sasuke added.  
“Of course.” She agreed.  
“But before you start any missions you have to pass my exam.” Their teacher appeared with a shunshin in a puff of smoke. He had white hair and a mask covered most of his face, one eye also being covered by his head band.  
Sakura furrowed her brows in disgust. That shady character was their teacher? She really had no luck.  
“Yo!” the man greeted them waving his hand “My name is Kakashi Hatake and as I was saying you will be my students if you pass the exam in the morning so go home and get some rest. I’ll see you in the morning at training ground 3 at nine.” Saying that, he disappeared in another puff of smoke, leaving the three children in awe.  
“What’s that supposed to mean? I’ve never heard of another exam.” Sakura exclaimed.  
“So what if there’s another one? Come Naruto, let’s go!” 

“Are you going to stay tonight?” Naruto asked. They were on the roof of Naruto’s apartment building where they went to talk about the events of the day.  
“Why not?”  
Naruto got up from where he was sitting and stretched his arms “Then let’s go in. I have to start cooking dinner.”  
“Wouldn’t have cooked if I didn’t stay? Please don’t tell me you only eat instant ramen when I’m not around.”  
“Of course I don’t, teme. It’s just that I’m kind of tired right now and not in the mood to cook, that’s all.” Naruto pretended to be angry as if he had just been insulted.  
Sasuke smirked “In that case I’ll cook.” Naruto’s blue eyes went wide in awe. “What?” the raven raised an eyebrow in a questioning manner.  
“You can cook?”  
“I learned.”   
Naruto was sitting at the kitchen table with his chin resting on his knuckles and following Sasuke with his gaze.  
“Rise?”  
“The cupboard above you on the left.” He needed to be there to guide Sasuke in the kitchen since Sasuke has never cooked in his apartment before.  
“Salt?”  
“On the shelf above the sink.”  
“Stop looking at me like that.”  
“Why? You’re doing it all the time. Why can’t I do it for once?”  
“It’s creepy.”  
“I’ve been telling you that for years but you were right. It’s fun.” Sasuke grabbed a kitchen mitten and threw it in Naruto’s face since the blonde didn’t bother to dodge or catch it.  
There was silence for a while as Sasuke was cooking and Naruto was deep in thoughts, then Sasuke broke the silence “What kind of test do you think we’ll have tomorrow?”  
“I don’t know. I thought you would know something from Itachi.”  
“He never mentioned it.”  
During dinner they discussed different possibilities and made assumptions but the truth was they had no clue.  
After dinner they went to bed since they were pretty much exhausted after the stressful day.   
“Naru?” Naruto laughed.  
“You didn’t call me that in a long time.” Sasuke rolled over until he was on top of Naruto.  
“Do you hate it when I call you that?” Naruto stroke Sasuke’s head gently a few times.  
“No.”  
“Then I’ll call you that more often. Will you be ok?”  
“What do you mean?”  
“I’m talking about Sakura. She obviously doesn’t like you but from now on we’ll be a team. We’ll have to work together.”  
“If you can do it then so can I.” Sasuke rolled back on his side of the bed looking at the ceiling.  
“That’s the problem. I don’t think I can.”  
“Why?”  
“I know you, I can complete any mission with you easily but I have the feeling that we’re just going to fight with her.”  
“I’m not going to fight with her.”   
“Naru, I hate how obsessed she is with me. I was afraid that I was going to end with her or Ino on the team.” Naruto laughed so hard that he almost fell off the bed. “You can talk to her about that you know.”  
Sasuke turned his back to Naruto and buried his face deeper in the pillow. “I’ll try.” Naruto wrapped and arm around him and they both fell asleep.


	8. Chapter 8

“Bells? What test is that?” Sakura asked.  
The three of them were on the training ground waiting to see what the test was going to be. Kakashi had yet to explain anything, the only thing he did thus far was to present them two small bells hanging from red string.  
“You have to get these bells from me before sunset. If you manage to get them you pass.”  
Sakura gave him a skeptical look “But there are only two and we’re three.”  
“Nice observation, just as expected of a perfect score student. Only two can pass. The one who fails will be sent back to the Academy.”  
“Now wait a minute” Naruto interfered. “We all passed the exam at the Academy.”  
“True, but this is my exam. Any other questions?” This was insane what else was there to say. No one ever told them that they can fail the genin exam even if they pass the Academy exam. “Then begin.”  
The three genin disappeared from Kakashi’s view to think of a strategy and figuring that he had some time to kill until one of them would make a move Kakashi took his Icha Icha Paradise out of his pocket and began reading. After finishing one page he looked around a bit before turning the page and calmly resuming his reading.  
Naruto had jumped in a tree deeper into the forest and was watching Kakashi patiently. The man was not on guard but they should never underestimate a jounin, even a perverted one. Naruto had learned that lesson with Jiraya some time ago.  
Sasuke had followed Naruto since the exam started and so his hiding place was where he could see the blonde but still far enough from Naruto. They concealed their chakra so they had to stay close to one another.  
When Naruto looked at Sasuke the raven nodded. Naruto would attack first since his specialty, the tajuu kage bunshin, was perfect for diversions then Sasuke would take Kakashi by surprise and grab the bells.  
Naruto jumped from the tree and making the hand seals he created several clones all of them in his female form who surrounded Kakashi. The man dropped his book and covered his bleeding nose with one hand but when Naruto almost grabbed the bells he vanished, leaving just a log in his place.  
Sasuke was ready though. He had been watching with his sharingan activated and had been able to predict Kakashi’s moves so he managed to grab a bell from the teacher before the man escaped again.  
“Damn.” He went back into the forest to hide as Naruto made a few more failed attempts.  
Deciding to take advantage of Naruto, Sakura launched her own weapon attack but Kakashi used Naruto’s clones to shield himself.  
“It’s not very nice to attack an injured man Sakura chan.”  
“You call yourself injured? You’re just a pervert.” She kept on attacking even after all clones were dispelled and by then Naruto was in a hiding place behind some bushes watching the battle scene.   
Sasuke landed behind him and crouched beside him. “Sorry I failed.”  
“You didn’t fail. In fact you did well considering that we are against a jounin.”  
“I probably couldn’t have done it if he hadn’t been so affected by your clones.”  
“Yeah, he’s a pervert.”  
Sakura was a bit desperate. Ok a bit more. There was just one bell left and she had to get it at any cost. Sasuke already got one and she couldn’t let Naruto baka to get the second one.  
The attack the boys pulled of was impressive. She didn’t even know that Naruto was capable of making twenty clones. She didn’t know he could do kage bunshin or henge in the first place since she never saw him do a jutsu successfully but when he passed the exam she had to assume that he could do that much, after all they were basic jutsu required at the exam. Twenty clones however she never expected. It raised many questions for her since she knew that a jounin level ninja could make up to five shadow clones at once without using too much chakra but there was no time for that now. Now she had to focus on getting that bell.  
She tried to make use of Naruto’s distraction, just like Sasuke did to get that bell but it didn’t work. Although she had her chakra concealed Kakashi noticed her and blocked her attack with clones until Naruto dispelled the rest of them then it was just a shuriken and kunai attack that was easily dodged by the jounin.  
“You sure are in a hurry, Sakura!” Kakashi noted and dodging some shuriken he picked the book that he had lost in the previous attack. She knew he was right but what if Naruto attacked again if she stopped?  
In his hiding place behind the bushes Sasuke sighed. “She’s desperate.”  
“Yeah.” Looking at Sasuke Naruto continued “We need a plan. The same trick won’t work twice.” Sasuke nodded.  
“When Sakura gives up we get him from both sides. Don’t go easy on him.”  
“Ok.” They split up, running in opposite directions of the training ground and patiently watched the battle unfolding on the training ground until Sakura was out of stamina.   
Her attacks had no effect on Kakashi and the fact that he was dodging shuriken while reading his orange book was getting on her nerves.  
“Oh, my favorite chapter!” Kakashi mumbled “The best part in the book.” Sakura went for a close range attack full speed but Kakashi flipped a page and trapped her in the ground with a douton. At that precise moment Naruto and Sasuke emerged from the forest with full speed. Sasuke made a giant fireball to push Kakashi back while Naruto attacked with a rasengan from behind. He noticed the rasengan a moment too late because although he dodged it easily the chakra ball cut the string that attached the bell to his belt and he lost the bell that was caught by a clone that Naruto just made.  
“Bravo!” Kakashi applauded “Congratulations, you all just failed.”   
“But we got the bells!” Naruto voiced their thoughts holding his bell where everyone could see it.  
Kakashi got Sakura out of the hole she was stuck in. “You do.”  
“Then why?” Sasuke added.  
“If you have to ask why then you deserve to fail. Sakura why did Sasuke and Naruto get the bells?”  
She thought for a moment, remembering the attack they launched to get the first bell. “Because Naruto caught you by surprise with that perverted jutsu and Sasuke took advantage of it.”  
“Wrong. Sasuke didn’t take advantage of Naruto’s attack. Naruto’s attack was a distraction to give Sasuke an opportunity. Do you understand what that means?”  
“That they worked together?” she asked.  
“Yes. What about the second time?”  
“Sasuke distracted you so that Naruto could grab the bell.”  
“Wrong again but I suppose you didn’t get a good view from that hole. The most powerful attack wasn’t Sasuke’s but Naruto’s. Sasuke pushed me back in Naruto’s trap. Because of Sasuke’s attack I barely dodged Naruto’s jutsu.” Sakura looked surprised. If Naruto used a jutsu then she didn’t see it because of Sasuke’s fire ball. “They used team work to get both bells.” Then he addressed the boys “Sasuke, Naruto do you know why you failed?” None of them answered and Kakashi sighed again. “It’s great that you work as a team but your team has three members not just two.”  
“But Sakura never asked for our help.” Naruto pointed out.  
“Did Sasuke ask for your help?”  
“Well, no…”  
“Do you help your team mates only if they ask for help? Sakura, did it even cross your mind to work together with them? Now tell me if I’m wrong but after Sasuke got the first bell you became desperate to get the last one, am I right? Who was your enemy? Me or Naruto?” She looked at the ground in shame. “Answer me!” Kakashi demanded.  
“Both of you but I feared Naruto more.”  
“Why? And why didn’t you try to work as a team with Sasuke at least like Naruto did?”  
She clenched her fists. She never thought she would be humiliated like this on her first day as a genin and on top of that be sent back to the Academy, not after she worked hard for four years to get top grades.  
“Because they’re a bunch of deceivers!” She yelled letting all anger and frustration out. “I couldn’t trust them.” Tears began falling down her cheeks.  
Everyone else watched her surprised, none of them understanding what she meant. “What do you mean?” Kakashi eventually asked.  
She turned to Sasuke and looked in his onyx eyes. She needed to get out what had been bothering her from the beginning of this exam, she needed to know.  
“Last year when you helped at the book stand you said that you didn’t know the girl you were with. That girl was Naruto, right? The clones he used today were identical to her except that she didn’t have scars on her cheeks.” Kakashi’s gaze moved to the raven. Apparently these kids had some problems to sort out that he didn’t know existed. He had assumed that they would have some difficulties working together considering who Naruto was and considering that although the villagers who knew the truth but could not tell that truth to their children without breaking the law and risking harsh punishment would make sure their children stay away from the Kyuubi container and maybe even hate him. As a teacher he needed to know where they stood, what would be Sasuke’s and Sakura’s reaction to being teamed up with Naruto.  
The test was made up for that porpoise. There was no official exam after the one at the Academy and he couldn’t send them back either. The Hokage entrusted him with the Kyuubi container for the exact reason that he was one of the few people who didn’t hate the child and he needed to make a real team out of them.  
“Yes, that was Naruto.”  
“Then why did you lie?” Sasuke didn’t want to answer the question alone. He and Naruto were in this together and he didn’t want to say anything before Naruto was ready. After all any confession they made at this point could lead to the fact that Naruto was a jinchuuriki.  
“Because I wanted him to.” Naruto interfered.  
“Why?” she asked.  
“You wouldn’t have liked it. You hated the idea of Sasuke and I being friends, everyone did but mostly you and Ino. You wanted to get close to Sasuke but be away from me and you couldn’t do that because we were always together. You were gossiping and assuming what reasons Sasuke might have to hang out with me then you told him to stay away from me because I was dangerous so I had to pretend to be dumb so that you would give him a break. It was all I could do for him.” She looked at him with wide eyes.  
“So you could make twenty clones at that time too?”  
“I can make up to a hundred.” He answered calmly and her jaw dropped in awe.  
“But…but how? Five is the limit, we learned that in school.”  
“I can’t tell you that.”  
“We thought, we thought that since you had no friends and you were so dumb Sasuke took advantage of you and used you.” She confessed.  
“You thought I would be capable of doing that?” Sasuke asked. “And you could still love a person like that? It’s disgusting.”  
“But you didn’t want to be friends with any of us” she defended “we couldn’t find any other reason why you would have him around.”  
“I’m sick of this. Let’s go Naru, we failed anyway.” They were about to leave when all three of them were grabbed by Kakashi and his clones and tied to logs.  
“You’re not doing anywhere. You still seem to have a lot more to talk about. I’ll go get you some bentos, don’t go anywhere while I’m gone, ne?” he said playfully as if they could escape then he left towards the village.  
“Great!” Sasuke sighed and they were all silent for a while after that.  
“Ne, Sasuke?” Naruto said on a low voice getting the boy’s full attention. “You just called me Naru in front of Sakura. You never did that before.”  
“I thought we’re done pretending, right? She already saw you do jutsu.”  
“So Naruto is not as dumb as he looks and I made a mistake about the nature of your relationship…” Sakura drew their attention. “Then how close are you?”  
“Naruto is my best friend and my rival.”  
“So he is that worthy of your attention….”


	9. Chapter 9

Things were not completely fixed between them but Kakashi assumed that Sakura needed time to digest the reality that was served on a silver plate to her on the day of the test. Every conviction she had about Sasuke up until then was proved to be wrong and she had underestimated Naruto big time.  
The boys were less affected, they worked together naturally to complete missions but they still avoided Sakura. She was emitting a negative vibe so he couldn’t blame them entirely but he was expecting them to at least try and approach her. He would not let them take anything aside of D rank missions unless they improved their team work.  
Their mission that day was to clean the river from all the trash in it and he assumed that it will be finished sooner that he originally thought due to the boys’ team work. Naruto sent his clones in the river to collect trash while he and Sasuke took the full bags to the cart then to the edge of the village where the garbage from all around Konoha was collected. Sakura was collecting trash on her own and she too used a clone to take the full bags to the cart and refill her with a fresh empty bag but she couldn’t keep the clone for long due to her low chakra reserves.  
“Kakashi sensei?” Naruto came to the man who was enjoying a particular scene from his book. Kakashi was a bit irritated but he didn’t need Naruto to start again on how he was a perverted teacher.  
“What can I do for you, Naruto?”  
“Well…” Naruto scratched the back of his head “we’ve been doing missions for some time now but aren’t you going to teach us anything? A jutsu maybe?”  
“Well, you’ve only been doing missions for a week and you need to build your stamina. How can I teach you something new when after the mission you fall asleep in the middle of the road?” Naruto pouted.  
“We never did that.”  
“You didn’t but I think you understand what I mean. You are right though too so we will do some chakra control exercises starting tomorrow. How’s that?”  
“Better than nothing I suppose.”  
By the time they finished cleaning the river from one edge of the village to the other they were beat. Sakura told them goodnight and dragged her feet towards her house while Sasuke decided he was too tired to go home and crashed in Naruto’s apartment. He curled in bed beside Naruto and with that familiar warmth beside him he fell asleep instantly.  
When he woke up in the morning Naruto was gone but he couldn’t make himself move, much less get out of bed to look for the blonde.  
“Teme, wake up! We’re going to be late.” Naruto opened the door and decided to destroy his blissful moment by bringing him back to the painful reality.  
“Good morning to you too, dobe.” He said sarcastically still not getting out of bed.  
“Breakfast is ready. Let’s eat, and then you can take a shower.” Sasuke rolled on his back and spread his limbs over the entire bed.  
“When did you get up anyway and how can you even stand after the mission the other day?”  
“An hour ago, to answer your first question. And I just can, to answer your second question. Now get up!”  
“No.” Naruto went closer and sat on the bed.  
“Don’t make me make you get up.” Sasuke smirked.  
“What’s the worse you can do? Hit me with a rasengan? You love me too much to do that to me.”  
“You’re right. Make room for me!” He gently pushed Sasuke but the raven wouldn’t give up.  
“No. You left the bed so now it’s all mine.”  
Naruto moved on top of Sasuke looking at him from above. “Technically it’s mine.”  
“Not anymore.” Sasuke retorted fixing Naruto’s blue eyes with his onyx ones. He grabbed Naruto’s shirt and pulled him until the blond fell on top of him.  
“Now why did you do that?”  
“Just enjoy a few more minutes with me. I promise I’ll get up in five.” Naruto didn’t complain and instead rest his head on Sasuke’s chest listening to his heartbeat. Sasuke run his fingers through Naruto’s golden hair.   
“Ne, Sasuke?”  
“Hm?”  
“How could Sakura believe that you would use me?”  
“I don’t know.”  
“I thought nothing could taint your reputation besides me.”  
“A dobe like you could never do that. Now get up, I’m hungry.”

Later that day they were at the training ground with Kakashi and since they didn’t have a mission that day he was going to teach them chakra control like promised.  
“Now let me tell you what I noticed until now.” He began moving his gaze from Sasuke to Naruto and eventually to Sakura analyzing them carefully. “Sakura you have very good chakra control, you can estimate the amount of chakra needed for a jutsu and you can release the needed amount without wasting anything. You should consider specializing in genjutsu or medical techniques or maybe both. Think about it. Your chakra reserves are low though, you should work on that and on your stamina. You lack stamina the most out of the three of you. Sasuke your chakra control needs improvement, you waste too much chakra compared to your reserves but your stamina is good. Naruto your chakra control is the worst I’ve ever seen but your reserves are huge so I guess you can afford it, your stamina is good too.” He pulled a piece of paper from his pocket and showed it to the kids. “Do you know what this is?”  
“Looks like chakra paper.” Sasuke answered and Kakashi nodded.  
“I will test you to see your affinity and we’ll work from there. Who wants to go first?”  
Sakura took the paper from his hand and concentrated her chakra in the paper just as instructed.  
“Your affinity is earth.” Kakashi said as the paper wrinkled in her hand. He passed a sheet of paper to Sasuke whose affinity was lightning and last was Naruto with wind. “For the first chakra control exercise you will do tree climbing. Let me demonstrate.” Approaching a nearby tree he walked up on the trunk until he reached the lowest branch. “The idea is to concentrate chakra in your feet to stick them to the tree.” Jumping down from the tree he took the orange book out. “Work on that today because tomorrow we have another mission.”  
The three children were left alone to continue with their training. They picked up a tree each and tried to climb it and when they were about to fall they would make a mark in the bark with their kunai then attempt to go higher.  
Sakura reached one of the lower branches of her tree and decided to take a short break and watch the boys. She was getting a little tired because of her low chakra reserves.   
“Look Sasuke. I did it!” She was proud of her achievement and she wanted Sasuke to praise her.   
The raven spared her a glance as he was catching his breath after another fall. “Are you going to just stop there?”  
She felt frustrated, that reaction was not what she had expected. “Of course not, I just need a break.”  
Sasuke was concentrated on his task. He tried to mold different amounts of chakra to climb the tree but one time his feet didn’t stick and another time he cracked the bark. When he figured the amount of chakra needed, he couldn’t keep on molding the same amount for a long period of time. It was frustration but he was persistent. He looked at Naruto as he marked his progress before falling again.  
Sakura left first before dinner time, leaving the boys still working.  
“Let’s just take a break.” Sasuke said as he swept the sweat on his face with the hand that was holding a kunai  
“Not yet.”  
“Dobe, you don’t have to reach the top in one day. Sakura didn’t either.”  
“Well, Sakura is not my rival.” Sasuke put his kunai away and sat on the grass with his back against his tree. Closing his eyes he enjoyed the cold evening breeze that he was grateful for.  
“I have to go home by dinner.” He heard Naruto fall again.  
“I’ll stay a while longer.”  
“Just don’t forget that we have a mission tomorrow.”  
“I know.”

“That’s it? We have to find a cat?” Naruto asked raising an eyebrow.  
They were in the Hokage’s office to receive the information of their next mission. The mission was to find Tora and bring her home to her extremely concerned master.  
“Now Naruto this is a mission like any other and you know that we can’t refuse our clients.”  
“Yeah, yeah, I know all that but when you said tora I thought it would be…well you know…a tiger.” The Hokage laughed.  
“My bad for the misunderstanding but I assure you that Tora is no ordinary cat. I believe she created many problems for many genin in the past.”  
They left the Tower and taking the mission but Naruto was not pleased. He was walking in front of his team with his hands behind his head and a scowl on his face.  
“Let’s get this over with so I can get back to training.” Kakashi looked rather amused not only because of Naruto’s antics but also because he was imagining how his cute students will look after this mission. He was ready to bet that they would be beat and filled with scratches and bruises by the end of the day, probably some torn clothes too.  
“I know how we can make this mission more interesting.” He said smiling under his mask. “We play code names. Why don’t you each pick a name? I will be Inu, a cat’s archenemy.” They all looked at him in disbelief. “Sakura why don’t you go with Haru, it suits you. Sasuke you could be….” Kakashi thought for a moment but was interrupted by Naruto.  
“Yami. Sasuke can be Yami.”  
“Then Naruto is Hikaru.” Sasuke added.  
“See it wasn’t that hard? Now let’s spread and search for Tora. Don’t forget to report.”  
They all went in separate directions and Naruto made some clones to cover more ground.   
“I spotted Tora in the market area.” Naruto reported.  
“That’s now how you report, Hikaru.” Kakashi pointed out.  
“Right. This is Hikaru, I spotted the target in the market area. I’m on my way there now. Over and out.”  
“That’s better.” Kakashi said pleased.  
“This is Yami. I’m on my way. Over and out.”  
“This is Haru. It’s going to take me some time to get there. Right now I’m at the training grounds. Over and out.”  
“This is Yami. Hikaru, do you still have the target in sight? Over and out.”  
“Hikaru here. Yeah, at the fish market. I’m going to surround it with clones. Over and out.”  
Naruto made a few clones and surrounded the cat but as soon as one clone caught her she started to scratch her way out of the clone’s grip destroying the clone in the process. The rest of the clones had the same fate and when Naruto got her himself she scratched him until he dropped her.  
“Yami I need help. Now! She’s going your way.”  
This is Inu. Yami do not use fire, I repeat do not use fire. Over and out.”   
“Got it.”  
Eventually with a bit of team work they managed to catch Tora and by the time they took her home the only thing they wished for was a nice relaxing bath.  
Kakashi was rather amused at the sight of his students. This mission had been a good exercise for them to improve their stamina.


	10. Chapter 10

Sasuke and Naruto were spending their free days together. Sometimes they would use the day for training and sometimes they would go out but this time Sasuke was not in the mood. He felt too tired.  
They had finished a long chain of missions that week and when they finished their mission before dawn they would go to the training grounds to train so he was exhausted. Kakashi had told them not to push themselves too far and they didn’t really listen, well he and Naruto didn’t.  
The previous night, after a long hot bath, he went directly to bed but even after a long night sleep he still felt tired. He couldn’t sleep anymore though. His internal clock was working too well and besides he had always been a morning person unlike the blonde.  
Looking at Naruto who laid beside him he realized that the blonde was still asleep, breathing softly with his mouth slightly open. He didn’t realize how much time has passed, after all time was of no importance to him on a free day, before Naruto opened his eyes and he was caught staring.  
“What?” Naruto asked with a hoarse voice.  
“Nothing.”  
“When did you wake up?” Sasuke shrugged. “What do you want to do today? We can do whatever you want.”  
“Nothing.”  
“Nothing?” Naruto asked surprised. That was a first for Sasuke.  
“Yes. Nothing.” Naruto laughed beside him.  
“That’s going to be boring.”  
“Really? I think it would be nice once in a while.”  
“Can we at least talk?” Sasuke laughed.  
“I think I can force myself to do that much for your sake.” He joked making Naruto laugh too.  
“So…what do you want to talk about?” Naruto asked casually?  
Bringing a hand on Naruto’s cheek Sasuke traced a scar with his thumb.  
“How about you tell me how you got these.” Naruto pushed his hand away and buried half of his face in the pillow.  
Realizing that he hit a sensitive subject for the blonde, Sasuke put a hand on his shoulder. “If you don’t want to tell me you don’t have to.” He said with a soft voice. He wanted to assure Naruto that he will not be angry with him if he doesn’t want to talk.  
“Are they disgusting?” Sasuke was taken aback. Why would Naruto think they look disgusting? They don’t look natural but he would never call them disgusting.  
“Why do you think that?”  
“Because people find them that way.”  
“Look at me, Naru. I would never find anything about you disgusting.”  
Getting a bit of confidence, Naruto raised his face out of the pillow. Memories of that day came back in his mind and he hated it. He hated to remember the days when he only knew of darkness and fear, when his main concern was survival, when he prayed to be saved or killed. Every once in a while he still had nightmares but he never told Sasuke that. He didn’t need to know.  
After he met Sasuke things changed for the better and he was glad that he would never have to feel that way again.  
“It happened a few days after I left the orphanage. I didn’t have the apartment yet and I was living in the streets. I had to steal food to survive and one day I got caught. They tied me up and beat the crap out of me. One of them used a knife to make these scars on my face and he said it was so that I wouldn’t forget what I did. I didn’t understand back then….I thought he was talking about me stealing but I guess he was not.” Turning to face Sasuke he looked as if he was about to have his fate sealed. He felt that he might lose Sasuke, after all why would Sasuke be friends with a thief. Sasuke who has never done anything bad in his entire life wouldn’t want to be friends with someone like him. “I heal fast and I don’t get scars. It’s probably because of this” he touched his belly where the seal was “but these scars never healed.” Sasuke embraced him but was pushed back. “Now you know I’m a thief but I want you to know that I didn’t steal on the day we met. I didn’t lie to you.”  
“I know. What happened after that?”  
“An ambu found me unconscious and when I woke up I was in the hospital. The Hokage found out that I had been thrown out of the orphanage so he got me this apartment and gave an allowance. Now that I’m a genin he doesn’t give me the allowance but he still lets me use the apartment.”  
“You mean the apartment didn’t belong to your parents?” Naruto shook his head.  
“I don’t even know who they are of if they are still alive.” Sasuke was shocked.  
“Didn’t you ask the Hokage? He might know.”  
“He wouldn’t say.” Wrapping his arms around the smaller boy, Sasuke held him tight, afraid that if didn’t do so he might be pushed away again. He buried his head in Naruto’s neck and closed his eyes.  
“Don’t push me away again.” He pleaded and to his surprise Naruto obliged.  
“Aren’t you disgusted?”  
“Why? Because you did what you had to do to survive? Do you think I would push you away for some scars or for stealing? Those scars are a part of you and I like them. They make you different in a good way.”  
And just like that Sasuke got rid of another stone on Naruto’s chest. He was sure that nothing can break them apart and he wanted Naruto to know that too.

“Our mission is to do what now? Naruto thought he didn’t hear right and looked at Sasuke, silently asking the boy to tell him that he didn’t hear what he thought he heard.  
“The Hokage wants us to keep an eye on his grandson Konohamaru and his friends today. Ebisu needed a day off and there is no one else the Hokage can ask.” Kakashi patiently explained. “Now I’m afraid I can’t keep you company today so you are on your own. Sakura you’re in charge.” Sakura was in heaven. She was so proud to be considered the most responsible of the three of them and to be entrusted with leading a mission. It wasn’t much but it was still a mission and a perfect opportunity to get Sasuke’s attention. She didn’t get many chances to do that since the missions they did until then had them run around all day and with her lack of stamina she was always left behind but this mission was not about stamina it was about brains, or so she thought.  
The venerable grandson was a child with a lot of energy and wild imagination and with a lot of influence upon his friends Moegi and Udon.  
“So? What should we do now Sakura?” Naruto scratched the back of his head in embarrassment. Sakura had no time to think about something and answer when Konohamaru announced that they were going to race each other to the lake, so Sasuke, Naruto and Sakura had to follow. When they reached the road where Jiraya was usually placing his stand he spotted them from afar and waved for them to stop. Since Konohamaru didn’t show any intention of stopping the old man jumped in front of him in the middle of the road and summoned a toad big enough to block the road.  
“Now just a minute there.” He said with his hands on his hips “Where are you going in such a hurry?”  
“We were racing” Konohamaru imitated his position “and now because of you we won’t know who’s the fastest.”  
“Well sorry about that but I need a bit of help from Naruto and Sasuke.”  
“Ero senin…we’re kind of in the middle of a mission here.” Naruto interfered.  
“Oh, it won’t take long.”  
“Can’t you sell your books on your own?” Sasuke asked.  
“It’s not about that. It’s about this.” Grabbing a manuscript from the camping table he showed it to the kids. The title read Icha Icha Yuri. Sakura, enraged, grabbed the manuscript from him.  
“How can you show something like that to seven year olds?” The fact that whatever was in that manuscript was inappropriate for them made the seven year olds curious and they chased Sakura around in an attempt to get the manuscript.   
“Please, I need your help.” Jiraya begged them with his palms clapped together in a praying position. Naruto looked at Sasuke then sighed.  
“So what do you want us to do?”  
“You know? A bit of henge, a little posing.”  
“Fine. But no nude. I can’t have the Hokage find out about this.” Jiraya nodded.  
Naruto transformed in a beauty with long blonde pigtails that were tied with orange ribbons. She was wearing a white frilly dress that barely covered anything, with puffed sleeves that were tied with orange lace above her elbows and an orange corset decorated with laces. She was looking at Jiraya seductively but her arms were wrapped around the neck of a slightly taller girl with a high, black ponytail wearing a dark blue frilly dress, similar to Naruto’s but with red laces and black corset. The taller girl had her eyes on Naruto and her arms wrapped around Naruto’s waist protectively.   
Jiraya was drooling and Sakura’s jaw dropped. The seven year olds had completely forgotten about the manuscript and were looking at the scene unfolding in front of them in awe.  
To say that Naruto was amused at Jiraya’s reaction was an understatement so he decided to play a little longer.  
“Are you having fun?” He whispered in Sasuke’s ear.  
“He’s hopeless.”  
“I agree. Do you want to play more?” Sasuke gently pushed Naruto’s chin upwards so that she would look in her eyes and their faces were so close that Sasuke could feel Naruto’s breath on her face. Just as she leaned closer he felt a familiar chakra signature beside him. It was Kakashi who came to check on them. They couldn’t see the man’s expression under his mask but the one eye they could see went wide at the site.  
After that Sakura had to beg her team mates to drop the jutsu because the two men could not stop their nosebleed but to no avail. As if that wasn’t enough, Konohamaru, Moegi and Udon begged Naruto and Sasuke to teach them the oiroke no jutsu and Naruto was more than happy to oblige.  
Since then Konohamaru venerated Naruto like a God and saw him and Sasuke as role models. They started walking on their steps and a few months later they would present Naruto the improved version of his jutsu, the harem no jutsu which required complete team work.  
“That was hilarious.” Naruto couldn’t stop laughing “I think he’s going to write the whole novel in a day after that.”  
“I guess this mission wasn’t so bad.” Sasuke agreed.


	11. Chapter 11

“Is Kakashi going to train you again?” Naruto pouted. Lately he felt like Sasuke was avoiding him. Of course he was well aware that was not the case but he couldn’t help how he felt. Their relationship was as always but lately they only saw each other during missions since Kakashi told Sasuke that he was going to train him in private.  
Naruto had asked Sasuke if he could tag along just so that they could be together and Sasuke said that he didn’t mind but Kakashi refused saying that he could use that time to help Sakura with her training.  
Naruto was not happy at all to be alone with Sakura since he knew very well how she felt about him but at this point he didn’t have a choice.   
Day after day he would spar with Sakura on the training ground and although she was exhausted after every training session he felt like it wasn’t even a proper training. He had to refrain from using his rasengan and too many clones because Sakura couldn’t handle them yet and he just wished he could spar with Sasuke again. At least he was a real challenge.  
As he thought this, another more frightening thought came to his mind. What if Sasuke felt about their spars the way Naruto felt about sparring with Sakura, after all Sasuke was almost always winning? What if Sasuke was getting bored of sparring against him?   
They finished their mission for that day and Naruto was wondering how much longer this private training was going to last. Sasuke refused to tell him what jutsu he was learning and Naruto felt left out.  
“Why? Do you miss me?” Sasuke smirked and Naruto wanted to tell him the truth so bad, to tell him that he was beginning to feel insecure because of all this secrecy but he would not do that if Sasuke was acting like a jerk.  
“Don’t be an idiot, I see you every day on our missions.” Sasuke let it slide although he would have liked Naruto to tell him that he did miss him.  
“Good then because I have one more day of training with Kakashi.”  
They parted ways and Sasuke went with Kakashi wherever they usually went, while Naruto and Sakura went to the training grounds. He was gloomy and his mind was elsewhere so he just might have been pushing Sakura too hard and he might have used more clones than usual against her because she was rather displeased with him although she wouldn’t say why. If she would complain to Kakashi later on, he didn’t care.  
They were about to wrap it up, or to be more precise Sakura was while saying that he wasn’t concentrating on the battle (So what if he wasn’t? He was still winning. ) when Kakashi came followed by Sasuke. Kakashi, saying that he wanted to test Sakura’s progress dismissed the boys and Naruto headed home.  
“Aren’t you going to wait for me?” Sasuke asked as he followed Naruto and the blonde stopped but didn’t turn to look at his friend.  
“What’s wrong?”  
“Nothing.”  
“Come on, Naru, don’t give me that shit.”  
Naruto decided to tell him a part of the whole truth. “Let’s just say that Sakura is not a good sparring partner.”  
“Did she say something to you?” Sasuke thought that Sakura had been mean to Naruto but that was not the case. The truth was that even Naruto noticed that Sakura had been less mean to him after they became a team; she was probably considering Kakashi’s words.   
“No, I mean she’s weak. She’s not a challenge.” Sasuke laughed.  
“I wasn’t expecting her to be but if that’s the problem then I can fix that tomorrow. I’ll be your sparring partner for a change.” Naruto didn’t react which made Sasuke curious “Not satisfied?”  
“It’s not that….it’s just that ….aren’t you bored of sparring with me?” Sasuke looked at him as if he grew a second head.  
“What in the world are you talking about?” Naruto suddenly stopped walking and looked at Sasuke.  
“I can’t beat you. Aren’t you bored of fighting someone weak like me?”  
“Naruto, you’re my rival. You think I would call my rival someone I consider weak?” Naruto rushed at Sasuke and wrapping his arms around the raven’s neck he buried his face in Sasuke’s neck.  
“You really mean that?”  
Sasuke embraced him too “Of course, dobe.”  
“Then why wouldn’t you tell me what Kakashi was teaching you?”  
“Because I wanted to show you once I got it right.” Naruto’s face lit up and he was no longer gloomy.  
“Are you going to use your new jutsu in a spar against me?”   
“No. You don’t use your rasengan against me either. But I will show it to you.”

One day Kakashi decided that they were ready for a C rank mission. He probably wouldn’t have accepted if it wasn’t for a lot of complaining from Naruto mostly but he definitely didn’t think they were too weak to handle a C rank. He would have liked to take a harder mission when their team work improved but who knew when that would happen?  
They had to guard a bridge builder until the bridge was finished and they were guarding the site from both ends of the bridge. Naruto and Sasuke were alerted by the appearance of a man on the other side of the bridge. He had a sword on his back and was wearing the headband of the shinobi from the Mist but it was scratched.  
The boys watched their sensei carefully ready to interfere if needed.  
“Momochi Zabuza…” Kakashi acknowledged the other man’s presence.  
“If it isn’t copy ninja Kakashi of Konoha. I wasn’t expecting you here.”  
“And what brings a missing nin of the Mist here?”  
“I have a mission. You see, I can’t let this bridge be finished. It would be troublesome for me if it was.”  
“If that’s the case then I’m afraid I’m going to have to stand in your way.”  
“Too bad.” If the boys blinked they would have missed the instance when Zabuza drew his sword and attacked Kakashi. Kakashi jumped, avoiding the blade and the two men engaged in a tight battle.  
“I see that you still live up to your reputation.” Kakashi said, catching his breath. “I’ll have to get serious too. Sakura, guard Tazuna san.” Sakura dragged their client further away from the battle and grabbed a kunai just in case.  
What came next was a battle that Naruto would remember for a long time after that. Kakashi uncovered his eye, revealing a sharingan. Smirking, Zabura made a series of hand seals for a suiton that Kakashi copied to perfection not a moment too late. They went on for a while, jutsu after jutsu.  
“We have to help Kakashi get the upper hand.” Naruto pointed out. He and Sasuke were about to get on the other side when a boy wearing a mask appeared in front of them.  
He grabbed a bunch of senbon needles. “I’m afraid I can’t let you go.” Using needles he pushed the boys back. They dodged for a while and tried to divert the needles with kunai but they soon realized that dodging needles was much harder than kunai. No matter how fast they were some of the needles hit the target. Their other problem was that they couldn’t attack at all.  
“It will soon be over.” The boy said.  
Naruto looked over at Sasuke who was getting out of stamina. It was bad. Making several clones he sent them to engage the enemy in close combat but the needles were destroying them one by one. Taking advantage of the distraction Sasuke gathered his strength to launch an attack. Activating his sharingan he made a raikiri, the jutsu he learned from Kakashi. He couldn’t miss; he wouldn’t miss since their lives depended on this one attack. As he ran towards the opponent a bunch of senbon needles were launched his way but he didn’t dodge, he couldn’t, so he decided to just ignore the pain and get this over with but he crashed on the ground before he could reach his target. He tried to get up but his muscles wouldn’t listen to his brain.  
“Sasuke!” He heard Naruto call his name but he couldn’t even answer.  
“It’s no use to try and move. Your muscles won’t work and soon enough your heart will stop too. It’s over.” The boy explained on a calm voice. Sasuke closed his eyes in defeat. He wanted to tell Naruto that he was sorry that he couldn’t protect him, sorry that he would not be able to be there for him, sorry that he was weak. He wanted to tell Naruto to run. He hoped that Naruto would be able to read his mind as he always seemed to be able to do.  
Naruto jumped between Sasuke and their attacker and made a clone that was sent to get the needles out of Sasuke’s body.  
“I’m still here so it’s not over.” Naruto felt anger overwhelm him like never before.  
“You will just end like your friend. Why don’t you just give up?”  
“Why are you doing this?”  
“You wouldn’t understand.”  
“You can tell me at least that much if you’re going to kill me.”  
“Did you ever have a special person that you would give your life for, a person that is more precious than your own life?  
Naruto looked on the other side of the river where Kakashi was fighting Zabuza. ”Are you doing this for Zabuza? He’s a missing nin, a murderer and a man who betrayed his village. He doesn’t deserve you.”  
“I knew you wouldn’t understand.” The boy launched another bunch of needles, making Naruto even angrier.  
“I do understand what it’s like to have someone who means the world to you.” He roared as he made a rasengan and launched an attack.  
“It appears that I underestimated you.” The boy vanished just as Naruto was about to hit and ice covered the area. “I’ll have to use my trump card too.” Naruto looked around for the boy but although he could hear his voice loud and clear he was nowhere to be seen. Several mirrors emerged from the ice and the boy appeared in one of them. “As long as I’m in the mirror you can’t touch me.” His hand emerged from the mirror to launch another attack at Naruto then he vanished again only to emerge from another mirror.  
“But why protect him?” Making a rasengan Naruto cracked a mirror and noticed that the boy would avoid the cracked mirror so he made several clones and they all launched rasengans at the mirrors. The boy’s needles hit some clones but Naruto replaced them faster than the other expected and eventually they managed to crack the mirrors.  
The boy fell from the last mirror as a clone cracked it. Naruto didn’t miss the moment and hit him with a rasengan. He paused for a moment, panting and looked at the boy to make sure he would not get up. He wasn’t dead but he was bleeding heavily.  
Naruto ran at Sasuke’s side and pushed him slightly. “Sasuke, Sasuke wake up…..please.” There was no reaction from the raven. Tears started to fall from Naruto’s eyes and leaned closer until his forehead touched Sasuke’s “Please, don’t leave me.” He begged.  
Sasuke could hear everything but he was too exhausted to do anything. He felt Naruto’s tears falling on his face and he wanted to wipe them and tell Naruto that he was still alive, that everything will be fine. With the last bit of strength he could muster he raised his head slightly until his nose brushed Naruto’s and opened his eyes.  
“Sasuke!”


	12. Chapter 12

Once their mission was over and wounds almost healed they returned to Konoha. They had the next day free since Kakashi needed to have a serious talk with the Hokage.  
The mission had been an A rank but it had been classified as a C rank due to the fact that the client had obstructed information when he filed the mission. This could have had serious consequences and the matter should be addressed as soon as possible. Another problem was the boy they brought with them in Konoha. They needed to see what was going to happen to him.  
Sasuke was in Naruto’s apartment as the blonde was fussing around him. “Naruto, I’m fine. Calm down and sit or I’m going home.”  
“I just want to make sure you’re not in pain.”  
“It still hurts a bit but Tsunade said I’ll be fine in about a week so calm down.”  
“You have no idea how scared I was.”  
Sasuke rolled his eyes. “I know, you already told me a hundred times.” No matter what Sasuke said he couldn’t make Naruto calm down. “Come here!”  
Naruto obliged and Sasuke pulled him so that the blonde was sitting on his lap “You can’t be scared of death forever.”  
Naruto leaned closer and brushed his nose against Sasuke’s “I’m not afraid of death. I’m afraid of losing you.”  
“You need to stop that, for your own good.” Sasuke kissed Naruto’s forehead and smiled at him “I believe you invited Haku over later today. Don’t you need to clean this place up a bit?” Naruto’s eyes went wide.  
“Shit! I have to get lunch started.” Sasuke laughed at Naruto’s sudden change of mood. “Come on, help me out.”  
Things were getting back to normal again.  
Later that day Sakura and the boy they brought from the Wave, Haku came to Naruto’s apartment for lunch. The atmosphere was a bit awkward but they wanted him to feel like a guest in Konoha.  
Haku was two years older than the rest of them and although he didn’t protest, he didn’t talk much either during their journey back so they didn’t know much about him.   
He was sitting on the floor in front of the coffee table looking at the cup of tea in front of him and everyone could tell that he didn’t feel comfortable to be there.  
“Haku, we’re not blaming you. I know you were just following orders but we need to understand.” Naruto told him, breaking the silence.  
Haku raised his eyes to look at Naruto and the blonde wondered once again if Haku was really a boy. He knew of course that he was, the boy himself confirmed it but he still had such feminine features that he could make even a girl envious. “I don’t regret fighting you and hurting you. Can you say that you don’t blame me knowing that?”  
“Yes.” Naruto said with a firm voice.   
“Zabuza was all I had.” He started slowly. They could all see that he was running a debate in his head whether he should tell them or not. “He saved me after my clan was hunted down for having a kekkei genkai. He raised me, he fed me and he was my teacher. He gave me a purpose in life. I owe him my life. The least I could do for him was to give him my life.”  
“You talk about yourself as an object.” Sasuke pointed out “You don’t belong to him just because he saved your life.”  
“Did he use you?” Sakura asked.  
Haku gave her a questioning look. “What do you mean?” Sakura looked at Sasuke confused.  
“Did he order you around?” Naruto asked.  
“He just told me what he wanted me to do, that’s all.”  
“What about what you wanted?” Sasuke asked.  
“I didn’t want anything in particular, just to make him happy.”  
“That’s insane.” Sakura pointed out. “You need some serious help.” The boys nodded. That day they decided to start Haku’s reformation.  
Haku was going to stay at Naruto’s place for a few days until things were cleared so he stayed even after Sasuke and Sakura left that evening.  
“Naruto?” Haku asked a bit shy taking a sip from his cup of tea. “Sasuke is your precious person, I can tell.”  
Naruto put a lump of sugar in his cup and stirred it absentminded. “Yes, he is.”  
“Why are you nice to me when I almost killed him?”  
“Because I believe that everyone deserves a second chance. But if you ever hurt him again I won’t forgive you.” His voice was calm in spite of the harsh words he was saying but he wanted to make things clear.  
Haku seemed unfazed, maybe because he knew that Naruto would feel that way or maybe because he didn’t care that he was threatened.  
“Why is he so special?”  
“He brought me out of the dark place I was in. In time you’ll understand.”

“Go on, try it!” Naruto, Sasuke and Haku were enjoying an afternoon in the village. They decided to show Haku around the village since he was going to stay there for a while.  
Sasuke bought ice cream for the three of them but Haku looked confused at the ice cream cone.  
“It’s just ice cream.” Naruto laughed seeing the face he made.  
“You like to eat ice?” He asked confused making both boys laugh.  
“It’s chocolate flavored ice, it’s really good.” Hesitantly, Haku took the cone from Sasuke’s hand and licked a bit of ice cream. “It’s good.”  
“You bet. I can’t believe you’ve never had ice cream before.”  
“Narutoooo!” The blonde turned around just in time to be caught in a tight embrace by Konohamaru. When the boy eventually let Naruto go he measured Haku from head to toe.  
“Your oiroke no jutsu is really good, Sakura but why do you need one?” the boy asked and Haku looked at him confused. He didn’t look like Sakura as far as he knew.  
“It’s obvious that this oiroke version looks better than the original.” Udon pointed out adjusting his glasses with an air of superiority. Naruto and Sasuke burst into laughter while Haku just looked confused.  
“What are you talking about? I’m over here.” Sakura had arrived a moment before and was standing behind Konohamaru with her hands on her hips. “And Haku is a boy, just so you know.” The three seven year olds were left with their mouths wide open. “What are you doing here anyway?” Sakura was still mad at them for saying that Haku was more beautiful than her.  
“We came to show Naruto our improved oiroke no jutsu before we use it on Ebisu sensei.  
Naruto gave them his full attention as he absentmindedly licked his ice cream “Well, let’s see it then!” The three kids nodded and full of confidence made the hand seals. Transforming in three girls wearing swim suits they made a pose.  
“What do you think?” Konohamaru asked “We call it harem no jutsu.”  
Naruto nodded in approval “Not bad but it needs improvement. I mean you want to bring down a pervert for good not to entertain him, right?” The three girls nodded. “You want him to get a nose bleed, right?” They nodded again. “Then Moegi you need to work on the hair, Udon loose the glasses and Konohamaru you need to be more graceful, your pose needs improvement too. Doing a pinup pose is fine if you’re on your own, but you’re a team. Remember what Sasuke and I did last time?”  
They nodded again “You were about to kiss.”  
“That’s team work. Show me again once you improved that.” They saluted, raising their hands at their temples and ran kami knows where.  
“That was really mature, Naruto.” Sakura scolded him. “Why do you drag those kids in your stupid pranks?”  
“Well, they want to be dragged.”  
Their conversation was interrupted by a man who approached them. The stern look on his face announced a storm and Sasuke furrowed his brows.  
“What’s the meaning of this, Sasuke?”  
“What do you mean, father?”   
“I can’t stop you from being around the Uzumaki since you are on the same team but now there’s this.” Fugaku pointed his finger towards Haku who was confused but was smart enough to keep the questions for later. “He almost killed you a week ago, or did you forget that? He’s a missing nin, a traitor of his village. He should be in jail not roaming the streets of our village freely.”  
“Technically he’s not a missing nin since he was never officially a ninja.” Naruto interfered calmly.  
“And who gave you permission to talk?” Fugaku roared “I was talking to Sasuke not to you. I am certain that he doesn’t regret what he did to Sasuke just like you don’t regret what you did.”  
“Enough!” Sasuke shouted clenching his fists “What happened a week ago is between me and Haku, it’s not your concern.”  
“I will personally talk to the Hokage and the council about this. He has done too many mistakes already.” They all watched his silhouette get smaller as he headed in the direction of the Hokage Tower.  
Sasuke’s fists were trembling and Naruto grabbed his hands to calm him down. “How dare he?” Sasuke hissed.  
“Sasuke, I’m sure Haku can understand.”   
“It’s not that.” Realizing what Sasuke was referring to, Naruto laced their fingers together.  
“I don’t mind, Sasuke. I’m used to it.”  
“You shouldn’t be. I won’t accept that from my own family.”   
Sakura was confused since she didn’t understand what was going on. She wanted to comfort Sasuke more than anything but she didn’t know what was bothering him. What could she say to him? What was Naruto supposed to regret? “He’s your father, Sasuke. He’s just concerned for you wellbeing.” She put a hand on his shoulder in her own attempt to comfort him.  
“Then he should try to understand me.” Wrapping her hands around him she laid her head on his back.  
“Talk to him. I’m sure you can fix this.” Sasuke let go of Naruto’s hands and unwrapped hers from his stomach.  
“Let’s just leave.”


	13. Chapter 13

That night Naruto couldn’t sleep. He had never left Sasuke’s side before he made sure that he would be ok but this time Sasuke left without a word. He must have done it because Sakura and Haku had been there at the time and his father already said too much. That would just raise questions and Naruto wasn’t sure if he wanted Sakura to know his secret just yet. He knew he would have to tell her since they were a team now but he was not ready yet.  
Carefully not to wake Haku he went on the balcony and looked at the moon. Absentminded he touched the moon shaped pendant around his neck. The moon was Sasuke. Sasuke was his moon and he will forever bring light in the darkness that was his life.  
“You’re thinking about him aren’t you?” Haku stepped outside and looked at the moon.  
“I never left his side when he was so was angry before.”  
“His father doesn’t seem to like you.”  
“Not many people do.”  
“What did he mean when he said that you don’t regret it? What happened?” When Naruto didn’t answer Haku looked at him. “I understand if you can’t tell me.”  
“I do regret. They will never let me forget.” Haku put a hand on the blonde’s shoulder.  
“Go to him.” Naruto smiled and nodded then went inside to get dressed.  
He ran as fast as he could through the night to Sasuke’s house. He never went there but he knew where it was. After finding Sasuke’s room he knocked on the window twice and it didn’t take long for the raven to open it.  
“What are you doing here in the middle of the night, moron?”  
“Is that what you’re going to call me next time I wake you up in the middle of the night?” Naruto said as he climbed down the window in Sasuke’s room. “Nice place you got here.” Looking around he realized that he didn’t know anything about Sasuke’s home or life style. Sure he knew that Sasuke lived in a big house and everything but that was all he knew. On one wall there was a shelf with books and scrolls and a desk, the huge bed was on the opposite wall, close to the window but not touching the wall the window was on and beside it was a wardrobe. Beside the door was a small couch and in front of it, a coffee table. He couldn’t be sure of the colors in the dark but he figured the place was nice and very Sasuke-ish. “Now I’m embarrassed that I had you spend so much time in my apartment.”  
Rolling his eyes Sasuke sighed “You’re such a moron!”  
“Right. Not an idiot anymore but a moron. Well sorry for interrupting your beauty sleep.”  
“I wasn’t sleeping. Are you going to tell me what are you doing here at this hour?”   
“I came to see if you’re ok.”  
“I’m fine.”  
“You don’t look fine.”  
“I don’t understand you. How do you deal with that shit?”  
Naruto sat on the bed beside Sasuke and fell on his back. “After all this time I just can.”  
“Don’t tell me you’re not affected.”  
“I am but I deal with it.”  
“I think I would have betrayed the village a long time ago if I were you.” Naruto moved his gaze from the ceiling to Sasuke. “The Uchihas are supposed to be the Black Ops, to keep order and bring justice in this village but my father as head of the clan is anything but a role model.”  
“I’m sorry. I can’t make things right in your family life.” Sasuke lay beside Naruto on the bed and looked the other in the eyes. He would have liked to see their sky blue color but it was too dark for that.  
“Do you know how many times I thought about running away from this village, just the two of us? We would go somewhere where no one knew of the Uciha or about the jinchuuriki and live in peace.”  
“We’d be missing nins. We wouldn’t have peace.” Naruto pointed out.  
“I know that, of course. It’s just…” Naruto cupped Sasuke’s face with his hand.  
“Don’t let it get to you.”  
“Will you stay until morning?”  
“Since I’m a moron I’m not afraid of getting caught in your room so yeah, why not?” Naruto discarded his jacket on the sofa and they both got under the covers. He yawned and buried his head in Sasuke’s chest. The raven rested his chin on top of Naruto’s head and they drifted into slumber.

“Dobe, wake up!” Sasuke gently shook Naruto.  
“Nooo.” The blonde moaned.  
“Get up or we’ll be late. You know what day is today?”  
Naruto buried his head deeper in the blanket. “Yeah, it’s Sunday.” His voice came out a bit muffled.  
“That’s not what I meant. We have joint training with Shikamaru and his team, remember?”  
“But I’m sleepy and I can’t train when I’m tired.”  
“Naruto, if you don’t get up this instant I’m going to do something horrible.”  
“Neah, you couldn’t. You love me too much for that.” Sasuke sighed. If Naruto thought he was a coward then he should give him a lesson. Grabbing the blanket he pulled it and discarded it on the floor then jumped on top of the blonde immobilizing him.  
“Sasuke?” Naruto asked, sounding a bit more awake than before. The raven leaned closer as Naruto began to panic and pecked him on the lips then got out of bed as if nothing had happened.  
Naruto bolted upwards in sitting position. He was definitely up. “What the fuck did you do that for?” he asked confused.  
“To get you up. It’s what I’ve been trying to do for half an hour. In case you forgot you’re in my room and you don’t want father to catch you here and second, we’re late for training. Now get out of here and wait for me at the entrance in the district!”  
Naruto smiled and got up to get his jacket. “I’m glad you’re feeling better.” Sasuke smiled too as he watched his friends climb the window and jump out in the back yard. Having dressed while he was trying to get the blonde up, he left the room to leave the house using the main entrance.  
“I’m still tired, you know.” Naruto complained as Sasuke caught up with him at the edge of the district.  
“Well it’s your fault for roaming the village in the middle of the night instead of sleeping.” Naruto pouted “But thanks. I guess I need you to be there.” He smiled and Naruto did the same.  
“So…are you up for this training?”  
“I’m not looking forward to it. I’m tired too.”  
“But I guess we have to get it over with and get some sleep after.” Sasuke nodded.  
When they arrived at the training ground Sakura was already there and she looked rather impatient.  
“You’re late! What’s wrong with you two? You look like shit.”  
“Thanks.” Said Naruto.  
“Couldn’t sleep last night.” Sasuke added. She looked at him concerned.  
“Is everything alright with your father?” Her voice was softer than at the beginning and Sasuke was afraid that she would invade his space again.  
“Everything’s fine as long as we don’t talk.” She wasn’t pleased with his answer but let it slide.  
Shikamaru, Ino and Chouji appeared soon after that and Ino just wouldn’t let Sasuke go. Of course Sakura wouldn’t have that, so they started fighting over the raven who was too tired to even yell at them.  
After what seemed an eternity Kakashi and Asuma also showed up and they began the training. They were supposed to spar using everything they learned so far.  
Ino cracked her fingers. “Let’s finish them off, boys! Shika!” Shikamaru nodded and took a stance behind her as she made the hand seals for shintenshin. Shikamaru tried to catch Sasuke in his jutsu, figuring that he was the most troublesome of the three. When he did, Ino used her jutsu to take over Sasuke’s body and Shikamaru released him only to have Sasuke yell at him.  
“Shika this is not Sasuke!” Indeed he was not because the real Sasuke was behind them launching an attack towards Shikamaru who was protecting Ino’s body but Chouji interfered and protected his team mates.  
Since Sasuke was busy with Chouji and Naruto looking like Sasuke was trapped in Ino’s jutsu, Sakura was on her own. “Let Naruto go, bitch!” She yelled at Ino and attacked Naruto’s body. Ino didn’t dodge, why would she? Sure she felt some pain but she’ll be fine once she returns to her body. She just had to control the body as long as she could and they would win for sure.  
Seeing what Sakura was doing Sasuke yelled at her. “Sakura stop!” She looked at him confused and Ino used that moment to bring her down.  
“Ok that’s enough.” Kakashi shook his head disappointed while Asuma smiled beside him. “Training’s over.” Saying his good byes Asuma left with his team.  
“You should be ashamed of yourselves.” Kakashi said as soon as the other team was out of site “Sakura why did you attack Naruto?” She looked at the boy who was full of cuts and bruises.  
“Ino was in his body and…”  
“But Ino isn’t in pain right now.” Naruto added grumpy.  
“Naruto, Sasuke, your strategy was good. Sakura you let your rivalry with Ino take the best of you. You should have helped Sasuke.” She lowered her head in shame.  
“Can we go now?” Naruto asked.  
“Yeah.” Kakashi left them alone and Sakura took some bandages out of her pouch and tried to tend Naruto’s wounds but he pushed her away.   
“You don’t need to do that. I mean…I know you don’t like me very much so you don’t have to pretend that you care.” With that Naruto left, followed by Sasuke and Sakura was left alone to digest what had just happened. Did Naruto think that she attacked him because it was him? Maybe Kakashi was right and their team work was inexistent.   
She thought of their mission in the Wave. Sasuke and Naruto had fought Haku alone and Kakashi fought Zabuza and what did she do? She just watched, she suddenly realized. She couldn’t do anything, the opponents were too strong. What good are her perfect grades now when she can’t even protect the boy she loves? Sasuke almost died on that mission and Naruto was the one to save him…the idiot.  
Covering her face with her palms she cried.  
“Slow down, idiot!” Sasuke was following Naruto on the mountain and Naruto was running fast “You’re injured.”  
Naruto didn’t care though as he skipped several steps.  
“You know I heal fast.”  
“Yeah but it still hurts.” They reached the top of the mountain and Naruto lay in the grass on his back since he had fewer injuries there and looked at the clouds. Sasuke joined him. “Do you think she did it on purpose?” he looked at his friend concerned. If Sakura could do something like that then team work was impossible for them.  
“She doesn’t like me, you know that.”  
“But still….”  
“I don’t know Sasuke and I don’t care, I’m too tired.”  
“Are you going to sleep here?”  
“Why not? I did it before.” Naruto closed his eyes and drifted to sleep. Sasuke moved closer to him careful not to touch a wound and closed his eyes too.


	14. Chapter 14

Sakura had planned all week how to get Sasuke to spend one of their days off only with her and her effort did not go unnoticed by the three male members of her team.  
On Friday Sasuke accepted and the pink haired kunoichi was in heaven, or maybe even above it. Her female charms finally worked on the dark haired prince and she kept on praising herself for her achievement. She even gave herself permission to do a gesture that was not befitting a lady and stuck her tongue out at Naruto when Sasuke agreed to spend Saturday training with her. Little did she know how Sasuke actually ended up accepting her request.  
That Sasuke was displeased was an understatement but Naruto had asked him several times that week to do it for the team. They both agreed that they had to improve their team work so that Kakashi will give them more C rank missions and for that Sasuke had to do some sacrifices. He had given Naruto his deadly glare but after all this time it wasn’t working on the blonde and he had to give in. One day, that was the deal he had with Naruto.  
The fact that Sakura didn’t plan on a date with ice cream and movies was in his opinion a very good thing. He would rather train with her than do some stupid girly stuff.  
“Will you help me improve my taijutsu, Sasuke?” she asked once they arrived at the training ground.  
“Do you want to do target practice or something?”  
“How about we spar?” Sasuke made a mental note to go easy on her. They took their chosen fighting stances, Sasuke in defense and Sakura in offence. He would not attack first instead he will just show her the weaknesses she had as they fought.  
She made a move first, making a close range attack with kunai in both hands. He blocked them briefly but could not push her back so he jumped as high as he could and landed behind her. She lost her balance since she had expected him to use strength against her attack not agility but gained it back soon enough.  
“You gave me an opening to attack you right now.”  
“Why didn’t you?” was he not taking this seriously?  
“I just want you to realize the flaws in your strategy. I don’t want to hurt you.”  
“Do you do that with Naruto too?”  
“Naruto can hold it against me in a spar well enough.”  
“Why do you stay friends with him? The adults in the village tell their kids to stay away from him.”  
“Why?” Sasuke put his kunai in his pouch and walked to where she was standing.  
“I don’t know but I’m sure it’s for our own good.”  
“Did Kakashi ever tell you that?” Sakura was taken aback. “Or Iruka, or Jiraiya or the Hokage?” No, there were a few people who did not encourage that but they could be counted on the fingers from one hand.  
“No, but most people do.”  
“Do you want to know why?”  
“You know why?” She couldn’t believe that Sasuke actually knew why everyone in their class had been told to stay away from Naruto.  
“I do but you’re going to have to entertain me today if you want me to tell you. Show me what you’ve got!”   
She did her best, she really did but although Sasuke never attacked her she could never bring him down. She decided to use this opportunity and improve her skills though and learn every lesson Sasuke was teaching her.  
“You have to become stronger or else you’ll drag us down.” Sasuke told her and her determination grew stronger.  
The spar was over after a while. Sasuke had ended it when she ran out of stamina since there was no point in continuing. They sat down on the ground with their backs against a tree, taking a lunch break when Sasuke decided to tell her anyway.   
He had given this a thought all day and he still believed that Naruto was the one who should tell her when he was ready but Naruto was never ready. It was taking him too long to share this with Sakura so maybe he should tell her instead. He’ll apologize to Naruto later.  
“If I tell you this you have to promise that you won’t tell anyone. Kids are not supposed to know.” He said after sipping from his water bottle. He didn’t look at her, he couldn’t.  
She looked at him full of interest, giving him her attention. “I won’t tell.”  
“Kyuubi, the demon that attacked the village on the year we were born was sealed inside Naruto.” Sakura’s green eyes went wide in shock.  
“What? But in school we learned that…”  
“It’s a lie.” Sasuke interrupted her. “People blame Naruto for what the fox did, that’s all.”  
“When did you find out?” After the shock another feeling took over her. She felt betrayed. How could Sasuke know something so important and not tell her too? Did Naruto ask him not to tell her? She could almost understand why the adults were not talking about this, why it was a secret meant to stay among the adults but Sasuke was her team mate, they went to the Academy together and they were supposed to trust each other.  
“When Naruto did, years ago.”  
“So then why are you telling me now?”  
“I’m telling you because we’re a team whether I like it or not.”

“How as your date?” Naruto asked playfully when Sasuke went to his apartment that evening after taking Sakura home. Sasuke however was not in the mood for that. He and Naruto had to talk.  
“I told her. I’m sorry.” Naruto didn’t react at all and Sasuke felt the need to justify his actions. “It was taking you so much time to do it and I thought she should know.”  
“It’s ok.” Naruto’s voice was flat so Sasuke could tell that it wasn’t ok at all.  
“I’m sorry…”  
“No, you’re right. She needs to know.”  
“Are you mad at me?” Naruto sighed and went to make them both some tea, he didn’t know about Sasuke but he needed something warm to drink.  
“I’m not.”  
“Then what is it?”  
As he was waiting for the water to warm up, Naruto got two cups from a cupboard, tea bags and sugar. He was moving slowly just to have a reason to not look at Sasuke.  
“I’m scared of what will happen to our team now that she knows.” He confessed. There was no reason not to tell Sasuke the truth although he didn’t want Sasuke to think that he was blaming the raven for anything.  
“Nothing will happen to our team, she’ll realize that the villagers are wrong and our team will become closer.”  
“You don’t know that.” He did not and Naruto had a point so he just hoped that Sakura will be able to see things the way he did and this secret will just make their bond grow stronger.  
Sasuke moved to the counter where Naruto was pouring hot water into the cups and wrapped his arms around the blonde.  
“The four of us will be fine, Naru.” But Naruto wouldn’t dare to believe in something that was closer to a fairytale than reality.

When they met at the bridge for their next mission it was a bit awkward. Sakura had been the first to arrive and when Sasuke joined her she didn’t even answer to his brief ‘good morning’. He didn’t complain, he was glad that she was not trying to make useless conversation with him for once but the fact that she was unusually quiet around him made him wonder what was she thinking.  
When Naruto arrived he was nervous. He was throwing quick glances at their female team mate but she only looked at him once before she moved her gaze back at her feet. Sasuke did his best to comfort Naruto. He told him that she’ll be over it by tomorrow and that she just needs some time to get used to the idea at least that’s what he believed.  
All in all it wasn’t going to be one of their best days but they’ll get over it. Little did they know about the storm that was going to hit and it wasn’t some wind jutsu either.  
Once they finished their mission without talking to one another, well, Sakura was only talking to Kakashi and only when necessary and Naruto was talking when needed, they went to the Hokage Tower to report.  
Kakashi tried to find out what was going on between his cute little students but none of them spilled anything and none of them complained like they usually did when they had a fight. He sighed as he announced their arrival at the Hokage’s office. Naruto, Sakura and Sasuke followed him silently which was unusual since Naruto was always happy to see the Hokage when they reported although he did complain most of the time when they went to take a mission. Kakashi had avoided that lately by taking the missions himself and when Naruto complained that it was just another boring D rank he would tell Naruto that he could not disappoint the Hokage and not complete it.  
This time however Naruto greeted the Hokage and stayed silent while Kakashi reported their mission.  
“I’m glad you completed the mission.” The Hokage nodded. “But I’m afraid that I have some bad news for you.” Four pairs of eyes were raised to look at him. “Sasuke, your father paid me a visit and informed me that he wants you to join the Black Ops with the rest of the clan.”  
“What?” Sasuke spat, his tone full of venom.  
“Did he say why he wants this all of the sudden? The Uchihas join the Black Ops after graduation not after being on a team for a while?” Kakashi asked equally confused.   
“He did not give me reasons but he was quite angry when he visited me. He even had Koharu with him to persuade me in case I refused.” The Hokage said but the meaningful look he gave Kakashi told the jounin otherwise. He wanted Sasuke out of the team because Naruto was on it.  
Sasuke clenched his fists as he remembered what his father had said the last time he saw him with Naruto and Haku. This sudden change had to be related to that, there was no doubt about it.  
“Obito is here to pick you up, Sasuke.” The Hokage added as the door opened and Obito entered the room.  
“Come on Sasuke.” Sasuke went after Obito without a word but his blood was boiling in his veins. He didn’t want to take his anger out on the Hokage since it wasn’t his fault. The Hokage had done him a favor and put him with Naruto on the team in the first place although Sasuke did not even ask. His father was the one who was ruining his life. He did not acknowledge Obito at all on their way to the Black Ops headquarters.  
His father was waiting for them when they arrived but he pretended to be busy with paperwork as he observed him closely. Sasuke did not say a word all this time, he didn’t demand explanations, he didn’t need any instead he waited patiently for his father to say what he had to say.  
“You will start patrolling tomorrow with Obito and Shisui. They will teach you what you need to know for now.”  
Obito and Shisui, Sasuke noted, not Itachi because Itachi defied him before. Although Shisui was Itachi’s best friend he was not as ready to disobey the head of their clan and not even Itachi dared to ask him to so Sasuke was on his own.  
The patrols on the perimeter of the Uchiha district were raised in numbers in case he tried to sneak out at night and during the day when he was on patrol in the village he was supervised by Obito and Shisui. In other words he was trapped in his own home by his own family.  
He didn’t feel like doing anything anymore but he had to join his family at breakfast and dinner every day although he didn’t feel hunger anymore. The food seemed stale in his mouth.  
“What is wrong, Sasuke dear?” His mother would ask.  
“I’m not hungry.”  
“You need to eat to have strength.” His father would say and the two of them would just glare at each other for a while before Sasuke would force some more food down his throat hoping that he will throw up and be left to stay in bed all day but he had no such luck.  
The only thing he looked forward to was training and wasn’t even bothered when Itachi didn’t train with him. He would rather train alone than have Shisui come along like a third wheel. Since Sasuke trained with Naruto, Itachi also started to train with Shisui so the two of them were spending a lot of time together.  
Every now and then he would get to see Naruto in the village while he was on some D rank with Sakura and Haku who was put on the team in Sasuke’s place or just hanging out with Jiraiya or Konohamaru or eating at Ichiraku’s and their eyes would meet. In those moments he wanted nothing more than to run at the blonde’s side and forget all about the Ops but Obito and Shisui were keeping a close eye on him.  
“Why do you still bother with him, Sasuke?” Shisui asked him one time. “He’s not worth being your friend, he’s just an orphan.”  
“You don’t even know him. Would you like if I told Itachi that you are not worth being his friend?”   
Shisui laughed a bit but he felt uncomfortable. “And why would you do that? We’re cousins, aren’t we?”  
“Yeah but Itachi is ten times the man you will ever be. You can’t surpass him and you are just wasting his time.”  
Obito started laughing at the insults making Shisui even angrier.

Naruto felt miserable since Sasuke left the Hokage tower with Obito. Although he saw his friend on patrol in the village he was never alone and he assumed that the other Uchihas would not let them talk. Sakura was not taking it any better and the two of them even argued at some point.  
“I hope you’re satisfied now.” Sakura told him one day when they were supposed to meet with Kakashi and Haku who was Sasuke’s substitute.  
Naruto looked at her confused. Why would he be satisfied? He was anything but happy.  
“Sasuke was removed from our team because of you. You should have been removed, not him.” Throughout the years Naruto had learned not to be affected by what people said but since it came from Sakura it hurt much more than he expected. He did not try to defend himself but he did tell her one thing.  
“At least you can still talk to him.” In theory she could and she tried too. Shisui and Obito had nothing against it but Sasuke always pushed her away. If he couldn’t talk to Naruto he wouldn’t talk to her.  
“Didn’t that date mean anything to you?” she had asked him exasperated after several attempts.  
“That wasn’t a date, it was training and I only did it because Naruto asked me to.” She burst in tears and ran away to hide her shame. Even then Naruto had interfered and she didn’t even realize. She had thought that Sasuke was ready to give her a chance and she had asked him to train with her because that was something he would be also interested in and it was more likely for him to agree.

A month had pasted since Sasuke joined the Black Ops and he spent as much time as he could alone avoiding talking to anyone even at home. His mother and Itachi were concerned for him and he hated to see his mother so worried but he also blamed her for being too weak to stand against his father’s wishes.  
He watched the sunset and sunrise every day knowing that Naruto would be doing the same thing from the top of his apartment building or on the Hokage Mountain. It was the only thing left that could connect them.  
“Sasuke…dear.” His mother came to his room as he was sitting on the windowsill watching the sunset. “I know you are upset because you can’t see your friend but you don’t have to avoid everyone else. We’re your family, your clan.”  
“I don’t see father stop Itachi from seeing his best friend.” He said not bothering to look at her. She sat down on his bed and there was a brief moment of silence that she broke.  
“It’s more complicated than that but I assure you that your father wants what is best for you. It may not seem like it but he is looking for our interest.”  
“I know but your interest is not mine. No one in this clan…in this village has bothered to know Naruto the way I do.”  
“Naruto is…different. He is an orphan and he can be dangerous. Your father just doesn’t want you to get hurt.” He turned around to look her in the eyes.  
“Naruto is not the one hurting me, mom. Father is.” She looked at her feet avoiding his gaze. His gaze could be as piercing as Itachi’s or his father’s and she was too weak to face that gaze.  
“One day you will understand.” She said before leaving him once again with the setting sun.


	15. Chapter 15

Kakashi’s team was getting worse and Kakashi was at his limits. Naruto and Sakura would fight about the most random things and Haku looked like he was out of the loop, not knowing what was going on between the other two. Naruto and Haku were getting along just fine when doing missions but Naruto did not confide in the older boy too much. Kakashi didn’t blame him though. Considering the circumstances in which the two had met it was a miracle that they were friends at all.  
Kakashi decided to ask his friend Tenzou for help one day and they decided to teach Naruto something new, well actually to help him improve his rasengan by adding the wind element to it. Kakashi knew that Naruto was more than capable to do this although he was still a genin but since he wasn’t a wind user himself he needed some help from Tenzou. In the meantime Haku would teach Sakura medical skills that were suitable for her chakra control. This way the two would be apart more than not and they would all have some quiet for once.  
His plan seemed to work just fine. Naruto was focusing on the task at hand and was in a slightly better mood, his skills were improving and Sakura learned something new too. It was perfect.

Sasuke had not seen Naruto around the village in quite some time and he couldn’t help but grow concerned so when he saw Kakashi, Iruka and Tenzou at a coffee shop he marched in although he was not alone.  
“Is Naruto alright?” He asked in a hurry before Shisui could drag him away from his previous teachers.  
“He’s in the hospital.”  
“What happened?” he began to panic. Naruto has never been in the hospital before not even when he was abused by the villagers and had some nasty cuts and bruises and nothing dangerous ever happened in D rank missions so he couldn’t find a reason for Naruto to be hospitalized.  
“He overdid it with training.” Kakashi managed to say before Sasuke was dragged away by Obito.  
After he got home he went to his room and refused to leave it or talk to his mother. She asked him what was wrong but what good would it do to tell her the reason? At some point he heard Itachi argue with their father:  
“He’s practically a ninja, father. He can live on his own if he wants to.”  
Fugaku scoffed at ridiculous insinuation. “With the payment he gets from completing those D rank missions he could barely pay for a room in the worst part of the village. No son of mine will live in such conditions. It would destroy my reputation and as long as he lives under my roof and eats his mother’s cooking, he will do as I say. ”Sasuke buried his face in the pillow. “And why would he want to go back to that teacher of his? He didn’t even try to get them into the next chuunin exam.”  
“I’m sure Kakashi has his reasons. The man was an ambu at least give him credit for that.”  
“If he had been Root I would have, probably but since he was chosen by that incompetent old man, I can’t. Do I need to remind you that he trained a traitor?”  
Hours later, Itachi came to his room, closing the door behind him.  
“Are you asleep?”  
“No.” Sasuke’s voice was muffled by the pillow.  
“Father cares too much about the clan’s reputation and will not let you go. If you want to leave you have to run away from home. Think about it and tell me your decision tomorrow but don’t rush it because there’s no way back.”  
“If I run away he’ll have Obito drag me back anyway.”  
“Maybe not, maybe he will disown you.” Sasuke raised his eyes from the pillow to look at his brother. “Are you sure Naruto is worth that?”  
As soon as Itachi left the room Sasuke started packing. He knew what he had to do and will do it, consequences or not. He told Itachi his decision and the older brother looked sad but did not try to stop him or make him change his mind.  
“Do it tonight. I’ll distract the patrol until you leave the district but once you’re out you can never come back.” Sasuke nodded.  
That night didn’t come fast enough in Sasuke’s opinion. Itachi kept his promise and soon enough Sasuke was on his way to the hospital. He didn’t pack much or else it would have been hard to run and jump over the wall that was surrounding the district. He only took his clothes and some small belongings leaving everything else in his room but it didn’t matter. Naruto was living just fine and he didn’t even have half the stuff Sasuke had.  
It took him some time to find Naruto’s room but when he did his lips curved into a small smile.  
“Dobe, wake up.” He shook the sleeping blonde gently.  
“Sasuke?” Naruto asked with a sleepy voice.  
“You’re a ninja, dobe. You should be more alert even when you sleep.” Naruto shifted oh his back to get a better look at his friend in the moonlit room.  
“What are you doing here?”  
“What I should have done a long time ago.” Sasuke’s tone became rather harsh as he remembered his father. “Look, I know how you feel about families and stuff, how I should cherish them since I have them and I do but I can’t stay in prison even if it is my home.” He was expecting Naruto to give him a mouthful about families like he sometimes did but Naruto did not take the conversation down that path.  
“So what’s going to happen now?” Sasuke sensed the sadness in the blonde’s voice and he hated that it was there. He hated himself for causing it too.  
“I’ll talk to the Hokage tomorrow to let me back on the team then I’ll start looking for a place. I’ll need to crash at your place until then.”  
“Sure.”  
“But enough about me. Care to tell me what that is?” He made a head motion towards Naruto’s arm which was wrapped in thick bandages.  
“Nothing much, really. I guess Tsunade-baachan exaggerated.”  
“Don’t give me that, Naru. You’ve never been in the hospital before and Kyuubi takes care of everything. Kakashi said you overdid it with training. What were you even doing?”  
“I’m just trying to make a jutsu that will match your chidori.”  
“But you have the rasengan.”  
“Yeah and now I’m improving it by adding wind to it.”  
“You’re crazy, you know that? I can’t use the chidori more than three times a day or it will damage my hand. That’s why I worked to channel it in a sword.”  
“I can’t use swords and I can’t do that with the rasengan anyway.”  
“That’s why I said you’re crazy.”  
“Sasuke…come back on the team.” Sasuke’s expression softened and he smiled at his friend but he couldn’t make a promise just yet. It was the Hokage’s decision after all. “Now take the keys to my apartment and go get some rest before Tsunade catches you here. She’s nice but she can be scary too.”

The Hokage had not been pleased to see Sasuke in his office early in the morning.  
“Do you know what you ask of me Sasuke? You ask me to go against the head of a clan.” Taking a stash of papers from a large pile on his desk he began reading and signing them one by one giving Sasuke the impression that he wasn’t even considering his request.  
“I’m a ninja and I can make a living.”  
“Apparently your father doesn’t think so.”  
“I know there will be consequences for you too if you go against father but…”  
“Sasuke” the older man interrupted with a stern voice. “I am the Hokage but I can’t do what I want. I need the people and clans of this village to support me and I can’t afford to anger any clan.”  
“But you don’t really have the Uchiha’s support, do you?”  
The man sighed. He didn’t know how Sasuke knew that but it was true none the less. The Uchiha’s were trying to remove him and he was still there because he had the support of the other clans, especially the Hyuuga’s who were against the Uchiha’s publicly.

Kakashi entered the Hokage’s office where he had been summoned minutes ago. That old man knew him too well and knew exactly where to find him. He also knew that Kakashi hated to be interrupted during the visits to his father’s grave so there better be a good reason.  
“Am I interrupting something?” He asked as the Hokage was involved in a conversation with Tsunade, his student and the head of the hospital.  
“Not at all. Please take a seat.” The Hokage urged him and he reluctantly did so.   
“Is this about Naruto?” he asked thinking that Naruto’s medical condition in going to be brought up.  
“No.” Tsunade said “He’s fine and will be released tomorrow but I don’t want him to do any missions or training for a week. I’ll make an appointment for him in a week and decide then if he can commence work. For kami’s sake, Kakashi be more responsible with your students when you teach them such things. His arm was almost useless when you brought him in.” Kakashi gave her a sheepish smile. There was no way he could tell her that Naruto didn’t stick to the training program that he and Tenzou made for him.  
“Sasuke came to see me this morning.” The Hokage said and Kakashi raised an eyebrow in a questioning manner. It was not what he had expected to hear. “He ran away from home and wanted me to let him back on your team.”  
“Did you?”  
“No. I’m afraid I can’t do that no matter how much I want to help the boy. I can’t afford to go against the Uchiha clan. I lost their trust when Orochimaru was caught researching forbidden techniques and they didn’t like the fact that I allowed Naruto to be a ninja either. I called you two here to ask you for a favor. I want you to help Sasuke and Naruto. Naruto needs his friend and Sasuke is the only Uchiha who doesn’t care what Naruto is.”  
“I don’t understand…” Kakashi started to say something but the Hokage interrupted him.  
“I’m getting old, Kakashi. I’ve been thinking about this and I want to spend more time with my grandson. I’m retiring and I want you, Tsunade to take my place.”  
“Me?” The woman gave her teacher a questioning look. “But the hospital is taking my whole time.”  
“I’m sure Shizune can handle it. Please, Tsunade. You can take a new student and teach her to help Shizune.”

When Naruto was released he went home although he would have liked some ramen after being cooped up in a hospital room. Sasuke had not visited him after saying that he would talk to the Hokage and he was curios what had happened.  
When he entered his apartment he found Sasuke lying on the couch listening to music and just staring at the ceiling.  
“Sasuke? Are you alright?” The raven shifted his head to look at him and gave him a sad smile.  
“Now that I can see you again, I am.” Naruto smiled at him and pushed Sasuke’s legs to make some room on the couch to sit. Sasuke shifted his position and put his head on Naruto’s lap.  
“The Hokage won’t let me on the team again.”  
“What?” Naruto asked shocked. He had been sure that everything will go back to normal now that Sasuke ran away from home. “What did he say?”  
“That he can’t go against father.” Naruto brushed a black bang behind Sasuke’s ear.  
“So you are the only one who would go against him?”  
“It’s politics and power that connect the clans in this village. I don’t care about that.”   
“Are you going back?”  
Sasuke scoffed “Of course not. I’ll get a job somewhere.”  
“Sasuke, you’re a ninja. There is no other job for you. Sakura will be glad to see you again either way.”  
“Why do you have to bring her up?”  
“Because it’s my fault that you were removed from the team.”  
“No it’s not.”


	16. Chapter 16

Naruto and Sasuke went to eat ramen at Ichiraku’s since Naruto had nothing cooked and Sasuke had not been in the mood to cook.  
“Naruto!” Naruto’s favorite team entered the ramen shop. “Grandpa told me you were finally out of the hospital.” Konohamaru said as he took a seat near Naruto.  
“Yeah, I just got out and the teme here offered to buy me ramen.” Sasuke glared at the blonde but was brushed off.  
“Good, ‘cause we improved our harem no jutsu and we want your approval.”  
“Didn’t you try it on Ebisu or on Jiraya?”  
Konohamaru laughed as he remembered Ebisu’s reaction at the improved version “Those two would fall for anything. They don’t have an eye like you.”  
“True, true.” Naruto nodded, pleased with the compliment. “So what happened?”  
“Jiraya said something about writing it down before he forgets and Ebisu fainted from a nosebleed.”  
Sasuke rose an eyebrow “Ebisu fainted?”  
“Yeah. Some teacher, right? And he is chuunin.”  
“Well then let’s see what you’ve got!”  
They went in an alley where they would not be bothered and the three younger kids made the hand seals. When the smoke vanished Konohamaru turned into a girl with black hair that was falling on her back up her waist. Her outfit was hiding almost nothing and she had her arms wrapped around the other two girls. Her head was turned to Moegi and was almost kissing her while Udon’s fingers slid under Konohamaru’s v shaped neckline. Moegi had an equally reveling outfit and her curly hair was tied in two pig tails. Udon’s transformation had lost the glasses and although she was not as beautiful as the other two her expression was full of lust.  
Naruto and Sasuke were impressed, they had to admit that.  
“I suppose this is one of those times when the student surpasses the teacher.” Sasuke pointed out making Moegi giggle and Naruto hit him with his elbow.  
“There are more possibilities in three.” Naruto added. “Maybe we should ask Haku to learn the oiroke no jutsu.”  
“Why does Haku need it?” Udon asked confused and both Naruto and Sasuke burst in laughter.  
“That’s so true.” Naruto managed to say before bursting into another fit of laughter.  
“For the curves maybe.” Sasuke added.  
Udon gave this a moment of thought “You’ve got a point there.”  
For a moment their worries were blown away and everything seemed to be the way it had been before and Sasuke was happy again.  
That evening the boys were laid in bed, facing each other and Sasuke couldn’t stop smiling.  
“What?” Naruto asked smiling slightly, content that his best friend was happy again.  
“Nothing, I’m just glad that I can spend time with you like this again.” Naruto put his hand on top of Sasuke’s and laced their fingers.  
“We’ll go through this together.” Sasuke nodded slightly.  
“I won’t let father have it his way although he has an entire clan to back him up.” Naruto’s smile faded. He didn’t like to admit it but he wanted Sasuke to defy his father just this once. His reason was selfish and he knew that family should come first but he was too afraid of being alone again.  
“Why did you space out?” Sasuke asked with concern in his voice and his smile faded too.  
“I always thought what having a family would be like. When I see children going shopping with their parent or to the park I always think that having a family will make you automatically happy. What went wrong with your family?”  
“I guess father did. You would have loved mother and Itachi if you had had a proper chance to meet them. Mother would have probably even accepted you if it wasn’t for him.”  
“I’m sorry that your family doesn’t make you happy and I’m sorry that you have to leave your mother and brother behind because of your issues with your father.”  
“Yeah, me too but mother needs Itachi more than I do right now. She suffers a lot but she can’t defy father.”

Naruto barged into his bedroom after taking a shower and getting dressed “Sasuke wake up!”  
The raven groaned not at all content that Naruto chose to be so loud in the morning. “Why?” he asked with his face still buried in the pillow.  
“Because I’m hungry and you have to help me with breakfast.”  
“We don’t have to be anywhere today so why in the world did you wake up so early?”  
“I thought you liked waking up early, Sasu.” Naruto said confused.  
Sasuke got up and grabbing Naruto’s shirt he dragged the blonde towards him then pushed him on the bed enjoying the slightly frightened face the blonde was making beneath him.  
“Since we’ll have to live together for a while let’s make some things clear, Uzumaki.” He said with fake annoyance in his voice. “First you never call me Sasu again, did I make myself clear?” Naruto nodded “Second I don’t always like to get up early, there are days like this one in which I want to stay in bed late, get it?” Naruto nodded again and Sasuke rested his head on the blonde’s chest enjoying the smell of oranges from Naruto’s soap. “I missed you. You have no idea how frustrating it was to not be able to see you. I watched the sunset and sunrise hoping that you were watching them too somewhere.”  
“I did, mostly the sunsets. I missed you too, we all did.” Naruto started playing with Sasuke’s hair and the raven moaned under his touch.   
“And I missed you doing that too.”  
Naruto laughed “But now you’ll start missing that comfortable bed of yours.”  
“I figured that since you can live with less stuff I could do too and who knows, one day we’ll get A rank missions and afford a better apartment.”  
“Are you sure you can live like this until then?”  
“Sure.” 

Haku decided to throw a party to celebrate Naruto’s release from hospital. Nothing big just a few friends of Naruto’s some food and drinks and of course party games. He had never done that before so he asked Sakura to help him plan everything out and when he told her that Sasuke was going to be there she became more than eager to help out.  
“Truth and dare is a must play at parties.” She explained like a teacher would to her student.  
“Why is that?” he asked confused. Haku has never been to a party before since it had always been only him and Zabuza and they didn’t celebrate birthdays either. He did want to go to one but there was never a chance after he came to Konoha so the only thing to do was throw one.  
“Because you can find out people’s secrets or you can make them do embarrassing things.”  
“How do you know they will tell the truth? Do you use jutsu on them or something?”  
Sakura pondered on that for a moment. “That’s not a bad idea but no. It’s truth or dare, they have to tell the truth. If they don’t, they can pick dare and that is fun as well.”  
Once the guests arrived he watched Sakura spin a bottle and start the game. The bottle pointed at Konohamaru and he had to pick truth or dare.  
“Truth.” He said very confident in his choice.   
“Who do you have a crush on?” Sakura asked. Her lips curved into a smile as the younger boy blushed.  
“Come on Konohamaru…” Moegi teased him as she gave him a gentle nudge. “Say it!”  
“Ino Yamanaka.” The boy almost whispered but they all heard. Sakura looked shocked and Naruto started laughing.  
“So you like older girls?” Naruto asked.  
“She’s not that old, she’s your age.” The boy yelled, his cheeks still tainted pink. Grabbing the bottle he gave it a spin and it landed on Haku.  
“Truth I guess.”  
“Tell us the most embarrassing moment of your life.”  
“Why? It’s embarrassing.” Sakura sighed.  
“That’s the point. You have to answer once you said truth.”  
“When I was hired at the hospital they gave me a nurse uniform.” Everyone started to laugh except for Sasuke who only smiled and Haku diverted his gaze to his lap in embarrassment. He never wanted to share that with anyone and now everyone was laughing at him.  
“I wish I had been there to see their faces when you told them you’re a boy.” Naruto said.  
“They all blushed and scattered except for Tsunade who called them a bunch of incompetents and called her assistant, Shizune to show me around.”   
“Spin the bottle, Haku.” Sakura urged him and when he did so it landed on Naruto.  
“Dare.” He said with a grin.  
“What should I dare him to do?” Haku asked undecided.  
“Anything you want.” Sakura explained “Just don’t ask for something dangerous or illegal.”  
“I can suggest something.” Konohamaru had a mischievous grin plastered on his face. He went closer to Haku and whispered something in his ear making the older boy blush.  
Naruto, who watched them closely, became nervous “What?”  
“You have to kiss Sasuke.” Haku basically said out loud what Konohamaru had told him.  
“What?” Naruto asked exasperated “That little creep told you that, it doesn’t count.” Sakura jumped in to support him too since she didn’t want the blonde bastard to steal Sasuke’s first kiss.  
“I want to see it too and make it more than just a peck on the lips.” Haku said with a straight face making Naruto wonder if he was a friend or an enemy.  
“It’s no big deal, Naruto. If they want to see it then who are we to deny them the pleasure.” Sasuke said totally unaffected and calm considering the circumstances. It took Naruto some time to gain his composure from the shocking request but as he leaned closer to Sasuke he realized that it didn’t feel awkward at all. In the end it was Sasuke who closed the distance and he put his hand in the golden locks to prevent Naruto from backing up. The blonde was tensed but the reaction their public had was still priceless. Sakura looked horrified and about to cry. Konohamaru and Haku watched closely with interest while Udon was watching with his mouth open.  
Little did they know that Sasuke was watching them.  
“Sorry for stealing your first kiss.” Sasuke said not looking sorry at all. Actually the state Sakura was in was making it worthwhile.  
“Moegi…truth or dare?” Naruto asked.  
“Truth.” The girl was too disturbed to go through a dare herself.  
“Who do you have a crush on?” She fidgeted a little and blushed but answered none the less.  
“Itachi.”  
Naruto gave Sasuke a nudge “Hear that? I hope your brother is not taken ‘cause my favorite girl over here has a crush on him.”   
“Hooking them together would do my brother a favor. Shisui has a bad influence on him.”  
Hearing the two boys talk casual about her and Itachi as a couple in spite of the age difference and everything else, made Moegi blush even harder.  
“Will you two stop fooling around?” Sakura yelled at them. “It’s highly unlikely for that kind of relationship to work. Just spin the bottle Moegi.” Sakura was not in the mood for this anymore but the bottle landed on her and she said ‘dare’ hoping that Moegi will give her a dare that was not too embarrassing.  
“I didn’t want to give you a dare so I guess you can kiss Sasuke. I know you want that.” Moegi’s tone was reflecting her disinterest in Sakura’s person. She had always liked to hang out with the boys more than with the girls and Sakura was too girly for her taste.   
Sakura’s eyes became brighter and mood changed suddenly. Walking on all four she went closer to Sasuke. She looked in his eyes for a moment then closed the distance and put all her love in the kiss. It wasn’t deep or full of passion but it wasn’t shy either. It was tender and had all her feelings poured in it. Sasuke would finally understand the feelings she has for him which cannot be expressed with words. He will regret kissing Naruto.  
Sasuke was still, like a marble statue under her touch. He would have liked to push her away but that would have been against the rules of the game so he just waited for it to be over.  
The game ended with Udon confessing his crush on Hanabi Hyuuga which made Konohamaru laugh hysterically and they all decided to go home since it was late. It wasn’t that late but Konohamaru and his friends had to get home before dark and neither Naruto nor Sakura wanted to hang around any longer.

“You should have seen the look on Sakura’s face when we kissed.” Sasuke said rather amused as he closed the door to Naruto’s apartment.  
“Why did you have to force me into that kiss?” Naruto asked not looking at Sasuke.  
“I pulled you into it, I didn’t force you. You could push me away if you wanted to.” Naruto turned around and when their eyes met his eyes were a darker shade of blue.  
“You know I couldn’t do that. It was a dare!” He yelled. “We could have finished it off with a normal kiss but you had to pull me and make a show in front of Sakura. Now she’ll hate me even more as if she doesn’t hate me enough already. Why did I have to be the tool you used to get her off your case? You’re not on our team anymore so you don’t care but she’s still on my team and in the last month all I heard was that your father got you out of the team because no sane parent would want their child on the same team as me, as if I didn’t already know that.” He sighed but calmed down a bit after getting all that off his chest. “I just want to be a ninja…become a chuunin someday and now you ruined my chances.”  
Naruto went in his bedroom and locked the door then slid against it embracing his knees. He didn’t want to be with Sasuke in the same room for now.  
“Naruto, I’m sorry.” He heard Sasuke’s voice from the other side of the door. “I never thought of you as a tool and I didn’t know she told you that.”  
“What hurts more is that she was right.”  
Sasuke leaned against the door that was separating him from Naruto “I just want her to give up on me and I thought this game was a good opportunity to do something about that. I didn’t think you would mind.”  
Sasuke felt miserable. He had never thought that he and Naruto would ever fight. Up until then Naruto had always been there to make him feel better when he was angry or sad and it worked but now Naruto was the one angry with him and there was nowhere for him to go, no one to talk to.  
“Please open the door.” He pleaded. He wasn’t expecting to be forgiven easily but he just needed to see Naruto. When he heard the key being turned he turned around to look at the blonde.  
“I guess we just had our first fight.” Sasuke stepped into the room as if afraid that he will be locked out again and wrapped his arms around the smaller boy.  
“I guess we did and I’m sorry. I’ll do anything to make it up to you.”  
Naruto buried his face in Sasuke’s neck but did not return the embrace. “You don’t have to do anything. I just don’t want us to fight again.”  
“Me neither.”

“He did what?” Naruto jumped from his seat on the couch and almost got in his teacher’s face. Kakashi leaned back a little and gently pushed Naruto backwards.   
“You don’t have to yell, Naruto. My hearing works perfectly.”  
Realizing his outburst Naruto made a step back. “Sorry but I can’t believe it.”  
“If you think I came all the way here to pull a prank on then you are wrong. I’ve got better things to do.”  
“Yeah right, to read porn.” Naruto snorted and Sasuke smirked.  
“If you really want to know you and Sasuke in your oiroke versions are quite some characters in Jiraya’s latest novel Icha Icha Yuri.” Naruto rolled his eyes and turned to look at Sasuke who was still sitting on the couch.  
“Do we want to know?” Sasuke shrugged.  
“Sure.”  
“Yeah, sure but later. So it’s true then that Jiji retired and that we’ll have a new Hokage?”  
“That’s what I’ve been saying.”  
“And who will be the Godaime Hokage?” Sasuke tried to sound like he didn’t really care too much, like he was just curious but the truth was that he was nervous. The implications were huge and if the Hokage was someone who didn’t like Naruto then they were in some serious trouble.  
“Tsunade.”  
“It’s not so bad then.” Naruto took his seat back on the couch. “She was really nice when I was in the hospital.”  
“Just don’t get on her bad side. She can be quite scary.” Kakashi advised the boys since he learned it the hard way. “Oh and don’t mention Jiraya’s literature to her or the fact that you inspire him, ne? And never do the oiroke in front of her.” Sasuke quirked an eyebrow at him.  
“As if it would work on a serious person, especially a woman.”  
“Yeah, she’s not a pervert.” Naruto added.  
“Whatever.” Kakashi brushed them off. “Tsunade has assigned Sasuke back on the team and she decided to take Sakura and Haku as her apprentices. She also wanted me to enter you in the next chuunin exam but I declined.”  
“What?!” Naruto yelled. “Why did you do that?”  
“I thought I made myself clear about team work.”  
“It’s not our fault Sakura won’t work with Naruto.” Sasuke pointed out receiving a glare from the jounin.  
“But it’s definitely your fault that she won’t work with you.” Naruto looked away as he remembered the scene Sakura had witnessed not a long time ago. He couldn’t believe that someone had actually recommended him to enter the chuunin exam and he would miss this opportunity because of…. Because of what? Because of Kakashi, Sakura, Sasuke or because of what was sealed inside of him? Why did things have to be so complicated? Why couldn’t he just be a normal person on a normal team? He assumed the other kids from the academy would enter the exam.  
“If it was Haku on our team instead of Sakura it would be easier to work as a team.” Naruto turned to look at his friend and once again team mate.  
“That can’t be changed I’m afraid. I’ll talk to Sakura but I want you two to behave too.” Sasuke rolled his eyes as Kakashi turned away to leave, using the door for once. “Oh and Sasuke you are not allowed in the Uchiha district anymore. You will be arrested if you are caught around.”  
“I wouldn’t go back anyway.”  
“Are you really ok with that?” Naruto asked once they were alone again.  
“I was expecting that much to happen.”  
“I know but still…are you?”   
“Yeah. If mother and Itachi want to see me they can come to me, right? How about you? Are you ok with not entering the exam?”  
Naruto sighed “No, not really.”

Sasuke was walking on the familiar path that led to Sakura’s house with his hands in his pockets and a scowl on his face. He didn’t want to do this but he had to fix the mess that he made.  
He had told Naruto that he would do some shopping before the stores closed for the day but the real reason why he decided to go out was to see Sakura. Of course he will also do the shopping but only after he was done with this.  
Stopping in front of the familiar white house with rose bushes in front, he took a deep breath of evening fresh air before climbing the few steps to the door. A woman he recognized at Sakura’s mother opened the door and he asked to see Sakura. She invited him in but he refused saying that he just had to talk to Sakura about something really quick.  
Sakura came downstairs when her mother called her and was surprised to see Sasuke standing in front of her door.   
“Sasuke?”  
“Look. This has to stop.” He said vaguely. What was this? Everything. He did not think what he was going to say before.  
“What do you mean?” She asked confused.  
“You chasing me, trying to get my attention… I don’t like you that way and I need you to understand that once and for all. I’m sorry for what I did at the party, it was stupid and Naruto and I had our first fight over that. And stop giving Naruto a hard time because of me. It’s not his fault that I don’t like you.”  
“Tsunade has offered to train me. I will become stronger and worthy of you.” She clenched her fists in determination.  
“This has nothing to do with your strength or with the fact that you don’t belong to a clan. When will you understand that? I think we can be friends for the sake of the team but nothing more.”  
“Will I ever be as important as Naruto is to you?”  
“Maybe, one day.”   
“You know, I also want to become a chuunin. I suppose I could put more effort into our team work.”  
“That’s all I ask.”


	17. Chapter 17

“Sasuke, hurry up!” The blonde grabbed his friend’s hand and dragged him through the crowd as Haku silently followed them. “Konohamaru is waiting for us.”  
“Why are you so fired up anyway?” Sasuke asked sounding a little bored although he was quite amused at his friend’s excitement.  
Naruto rolled his eyes although Sasuke couldn’t see it “Because it’s not every day that you get to see other Kage in Konoha.”  
Sasuke smiled as he looked at Naruto lead the way to the village gates. He noticed how Naruto became in time oblivious at the people staring their way and at the whispers when he was with his friends. He didn’t avoid crowds when they were together anymore although he still didn’t like entering stores if he could avoid them and Sasuke decided that he will ignore the villagers too as long as Naruto looked comfortable. He knew the blonde better than anyone else and he knew when something was bothering him although Naruto tried to hide it most of the time.   
“I don’t see what’s so special about the Kages. They probably came to meet the new Hokage.” Naruto turned around to give him an exasperated look.  
“I know that’s why they came. I just want to see them since they are Kages.”  
The three of them arrived at the gates where Konohamaru, Moegi and Udon were already waiting.   
“Naruto!” Konohamaru waved his hand excited “Over here!”  
“Hey! Didn’t your grandpa come too?” Naruto asked a little disappointed. He didn’t see the man in quite some time and he didn’t have the chance to ask him about his sudden retirement.  
“He’s with the Hokage at the Tower.”  
It didn’t take long until the Mizukage arrived. Naruto could easily tell who she was based on the robe that the Kages wore, hers being white and blue and the matching hat that she held in her hand. She was a beautiful woman with red hair that walked with grace and elegance rare in a kunoichi and Naruto was speechless. Two of the seven swordsmen were in her company, as bodyguards but they looked like soldiers escorting a princess instead of a powerful ninja of the Kirigakure. They stopped in front of the booth where two chuunin were writing in a register their arrival and a message was immediately sent to the Tower carried by a bird.  
She looked in Naruto’s direction before she went on her way and gave him a smile, making the blonde wonder if she knew what he was.  
“She’s beautiful.” He said to no one in particular as he watched her disappear into the crowd.  
“She’s also out of your league, dobe.” Sasuke pointed out.  
“I know that and you don’t have to be a bastard about it.” Naruto pouted making Sasuke smirk. It was always fun to tease the dobe.  
“Look the Kazekage is here!” Konohamaru pointed to the gates and they all looked that way.  
They couldn’t see the man’s face because of his hat but Naruto’s attention was caught by the three ninja in his company. The eldest was a girl with blonde hair and a huge fan tied to her waist and she was the one who went to register them. The second was a boy dressed in black with some puppets on his back that Naruto found kind of creepy and the third was a red head with piercing blue eyes carrying a gourd on his back. Their eyes met and Naruto froze under his piercing glare.

Sasuke came out of the bathroom after taking a shower with a towel in his hand. He took a seat on the edge of the bed that he shared with Naruto and began drying his hair with the towel.  
“You’re quiet this evening.”   
“So?” Sasuke turned to look at his friend but could barely see his golden hair from under the blanket in which Naruto had wrapped himself like in a cocoon.  
“You’re too quiet. Do you want to tell me what’s wrong?”  
“Nothing.” The raven threw the now wet towel on a chair on the other side of the room and lay on the bed.  
“If you don’t want to tell me it’s fine but don’t give me that shit.” He was a bit irritated but didn’t want Naruto to think that he was angry so he tried to control the tone of his voice as well as he could. The blonde had sensed it though and soon a tanned hand rest on the ivory like one. Sasuke turned to look at Naruto and when their eyes met all the frustration faded away. “If you don’t tell me I’m going to have to make you sing.” Naruto smiled at him and he returned it. “I’m tired and I don’t want to get up but if I have to then I’ll kick your ass.”  
“Do you remember the red head that was with the Kazekage?” Naruto asked and his smile faded.  
“What about him?”  
“He’s like me.”  
“What do you mean?”  
“He’s a jinchuuriki.” Sasuke looked for a moment in Naruto’s blue eyes pondering the implications of what the blonde had just revealed.   
“Are you sure? How can you tell?”  
“I can feel the bijuu’s chakra.”  
“What was the Kazekage thinking when he brought him here? This can easily be considered a threat to our village. We have to tell the Hokage.”  
Naruto withdrew his hand under the blanket wrapping it tighter around his body “He reminded me of…”  
“Of what?” Sasuke urged him to continue but Naruto hesitated. “Tell me.”  
“…of me before I met you. He looks like he gave up.”  
“Gave up on what?”  
“On people…. He looked lonely.”  
Sasuke shifted his gaze upwards to the ceiling. Was this loneliness destined to be the fate of all jinchuuriki? Were they nothing more than tools of war or demons in the people’s eyes? It was sad for him to watch Naruto being treated unfair by the villager’s but the blonde had him. Then Haku appeared and became a close friend for both of them, then there were also those brats who worshipped Naruto more than they worshipped the kami. Naruto was fine because he had friends but what would have happened to him if he didn’t have those friends? Would he have looked for revenge or would he have tried to kill himself? Knowing Naruto it would have been the later but he didn’t want to think of such a possibility.  
“I needed you to stop me become like that.” Naruto brought him back from his thoughts. “Is it wrong for me to need you so much?” Sasuke shifted his position to face Naruto and whipped the tears that wet the scared cheeks.  
“No, because I need you too.”

Not knowing what to do the boys went to look for Jiraya but Naruto suddenly stopped in his tracks at the site of the Suna trio.   
The red head was standing in their way while the other two were behind him looking slightly concerned.  
“I don’t know what you’re looking for Gaara but we should go back.” The girl tried to reason with the red head but he paid no attention to her pleading.  
“I’ve been looking for you.” He addressed Naruto. “You look like a worthy opponent for me.”  
Naruto was scared, he couldn’t deny that but he refused to show it since he knew from his own experience what it was like when everyone feared and hated him, how it broke his heart.  
“I won’t fight you.” His voice was firm and determined and he prayed that the other didn’t sense his fear.  
“You don’t have a choice.” The boy’s voice was calm and monotone, just like Sasuke’s and Naruto would have dealt with him much easier if he had yelled like a maniac.  
“Gaara, please don’t make a scene.” The girl tried to pull him away by the hand but he refused to move. “You can’t fight here! Someone might get hurt or even die. Father doesn’t want that.”  
The red head pondered on her words a little before he asked Naruto to take them somewhere where they could fight. Naruto obliged but not because he wanted to fight, he was more concerned for the villager’s safety. He didn’t know what was going to happen next but figured that he could improvise when time comes because running was not an option for him.  
When they arrived at the training grounds Naruto turned to the boy.  
“I’m Naruto.” He raised his hand hoping for a hand shake but the boy didn’t move or say anything. Sand came out of the gourd that rest on the boy’s back and it swirled around his body in a threatening way. Naruto was taken aback. The boy hadn’t said a word nor did he make hand signs and yet he was somehow controlling the sand. His instincts told him to get ready for battle but his will refused to obey.  
Sasuke activated his sharingan and stepped between the two boys. “I believe Naruto was clear enough when he said he will not fight you.”  
“Leave or die.” The red head said as the sand became more threatening. Sasuke took a fighting stance and Naruto tried to stop him when the sand attacked slapping them both to the ground. More sand came out of the gourd and taking the shape of a giant hand it grabbed Naruto, holding him in a tight grip in the air. Sasuke yelled his name helpless as his friend was out of his reach. He decided to focus on the boy instead and launched and attack with his chidori but the sand made a shield in front of the boy making the attack useless. Although the shield of sand was broken the boy was safe and Naruto was still in danger and he couldn’t use the chidori again right away.  
“Why do you put yourself in danger for him?” The read head asked “Do you not know what he is?”  
“Of course I do.” Sasuke gritted his teeth “he’s my best friend and my rival.”  
“He’s a monster.” A small sand storm hit Sasuke making several scratches on his flawless pale skin.  
“No, he’s not.” Sasuke yelled as he tried to protect his face. Naruto yelled his name from above, his voice full of concern.  
“Would you give your life away for him?” The sand started to pile up around Sasuke burying him alive until only his face was visible.  
“Without a second thought.” Naruto became restless and tried to release himself from the grip so that he could go and save Sasuke when all of the sudden the sand went back into the gourd and he fell on the ground.  
“Why aren’t you afraid?”   
“Naruto would never hurt anyone no matter what they say or do.”  
“What’s your name?”  
“Sasuke.”

“Stay still, teme.” The two boys were back to Naruto’s apartment and the blonde was tending on Sasuke’s injuries. Most of them were minor but they were all over his body and although Sasuke had been the perfect patient when Naruto treated the ones on his body he became rather difficult when Naruto focused on his face. “You’ve got a deep one on the cheek. I just hope it doesn’t leave a scar.”  
“That guy is a ticking bomb.” Naruto’s blue eyes reflected sadness at Sasuke’s words but didn’t say anything. He would have liked Sasuke to understand how he felt but it wasn’t the raven’s fault that he couldn’t. “I know you think he’s like you but he’s not, ok?” Sasuke said rather desperate. He hated to see Naruto like that; it was one of his few weaknesses.   
“And yet I know how he feels.”   
“Naruto, Gaara is the Kazekage’s son. He has a family unlike you.”  
“A family that fears him, Sasuke. That’s even worse than being an orphan. I need to save him.” Getting up from the bed he went to put the first aid kit in the bathroom as Sasuke’s gaze followed him.  
“You’re not going alone if you have to go.”

They found the siblings on the Hokage Mountain. Gaara was standing on top of the Nidaime’s head looking at the village bellow while his siblings were sitting under a tree further away.  
Naruto walked to the red head while Sasuke stayed behind with the older siblings.  
“What are you doing here?” The girl asked looking shocked at Sasuke. These boys had to be crazy or wishing to die to come close to Gaara after what happened earlier that day.  
“Gaara is a jinchuuriki.” Sasuke stated looking at the two boys who were talking further away.  
“How do you know that?” The boy asked.  
“Because Naruto is one too he can tell. Are you three really brothers?”  
The girl nodded “Yeah… My name is Temari and this is Kankurou and over there is our little brother Gaara.”  
“You look more like his bodyguards than brothers.”  
Kankurou scoffed “Father had us handle him since Temari is the only one he listens to.”  
Sasuke gave him a piercing look. “Handle him? He’s not an object.”  
“Gaara is capable of killing without remorse.” The older boy added.  
“And you have only yourselves to blame. Do you think he wants you to fear him? He’s just giving you what you expect of him.”  
“How did you and Naruto become friends?” Temari asked with a soft and sad voice. She knew that Sasuke was right. They had allowed themselves to be influenced by other people’s opinion about Gaara and everyone in Suna hated him, their father included. Ever since Gaara was born and their mother died their father blamed him for her death. She knew it was not Gaara’s fault but little Gaara looked up to his father and Kazekage and was deeply affected by his accusations and cold treatment. That changed in time though and Gaara stopped carrying for anyone, he would kill with cold blood everyone who stood in his way or treated him badly without any emotion. No one could ever see it coming.  
“He was running away from a store owner who wrongfully accused him of stealing and I helped him lose the villagers. We spent a lot of time together every day after that.”  
“Did you know what he was?”  
“No. It’s forbidden to talk about that in this village but I was told to stay away from him, we all were. I only found out later and there are only three kids in the village who know that Naruto is a jinchuuriki, Naruto and I included.  
Kankurou sighed “I’m impressed you didn’t run away when you found out.”  
“Naruto was already my best friend at the time. I couldn’t see him as anything else but that, I still can’t.” Sasuke turned to look at the two boys in front of them. “What is Gaara to you? Your brother or a jinchuuriki?”  
There was no answer but Temari looked at the ground in shame. She cared about Gaara, she loved him but she couldn’t ignore the fact that he was…different. Kankurou just scoffed in frustration.

“Do you like the view from up here?” Naruto asked the red head with a smile on his face. He felt more comfortable around Gaara than he first expected and that was a good thing.  
“Not really.”  
“It’s my favorite place in the village. I used to come here all the time because here I could be alone and safe. That’s until Sasuke found out about it.” Gaara turned to look at Naruto when the blonde mentioned the raven’s name.  
“Is he really a friend?”  
“Sure, Sasuke is the best and I don’t think I could ever repay him for everything he did for me.”  
“What about everyone else?”  
“Not everyone is so bad and I have quite a few friends. I guess I just ignore everyone else, they don’t have to like me and that’s ok. You can be my friend too if you want.”  
“Two jinchuuriki becoming friends would be the end of the world.”  
Naruto laughed “I can’t believe you said that joke with such a straight face.”  
“It wasn’t a joke.”  
“We’re humans, Gaara and we need friends just like everyone else. I don’t have a family but I have Sasuke and Haku by my side and you are more than welcome to join us.”  
“Why would you want to be my friend?”   
“Why wouldn’t I want to? Sasuke is amazing and all but he doesn’t understand everything, he can’t and I don’t blame him. Only someone like me can understand what it’s like to be a container.” He absentmindedly let his hand rest on his belly where the seal was. “I always wished I would one day meet someone who can understand.”  
“I only know emptiness and I haven’t found anything to fill it. I don’t even know what I’m looking for but I think what you and Sasuke have is the answer. You were lucky to have met him.”  
“I was…I am lucky to still have him. He sacrificed a lot for my sake. He saved me and I want to save you.” Naruto’s sky blue eyes turned to look into the empty ocean blue ones. He wanted to smile and reassure the other boy that everything will be fine but he was overwhelmed by the emotions that flooded him. “You’re a lot like him, you know that?”  
“What do you mean?”  
“He doesn’t show his emotions much and he is cold towards many people because he was hurt by the people he loves.” He raised a hand and hesitating slightly put it on the other boy’s cheek. He was expecting a reaction of any kind from the blue eyed boy but there was none, the red head didn’t even blink under the touch. “But you have emotions too….deep down….don’t you?”  
“Emotions are useless.” The red head turned his head away and Naruto pulled his hand back. “I just need to crush anyone who stands in my way.”  
“Then I’ll stand in your way. Will you crush me too?” Gaara grabbed his head with both hands and frowned. He seemed to be in pain all of the sudden and Naruto became scared again since he didn’t understand what was going on. “Are you alright?” He tried to grab the other boy since he looked like he was about to collapse on the ground from the pain but the sand came to life moving threateningly between the two boys.  
“Stay away from me!” Gaara yelled and Naruto made a step back.  
Everyone else’s attention moved to Gaara and in a blink of an eye Sasuke was by Naruto’s side.  
“Are you ok, dobe? Did he hurt you?” Naruto grabbed Sasuke’s wrist before the raven could attack.  
“He didn’t do anything, he’s in pain.”  
Temari and Kankurou also rushed by their brother’s side.  
“What’s going on?” Naruto asked concerned.  
“He’s fighting Shukaku, he hasn’t done that in a long time.” Temari explained. “We better go.” She and Kankurou grabbed Gaara by his arms and dragged him slowly away from the two boys.  
Naruto clenched his fists, his nails biting into the skin. He wanted to just kick the asses of the people who made Gaara that way. “No one deserves to be turned into a demon’s puppet.” Sasuke gently reached his hand and Naruto loosened the grip under the touch so that Sasuke could lace their fingers together.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I want to thank you all for following every chapter of this story and leaving comments. I really appreciate it. As I said before I didn't plan this story so I would like to ask for your opinion on something.   
> Naruto's relationship with Sasuke has changed once again with Sasuke's little stunt and I need to know how far you think it should go?


	18. Chapter 18

Based on Naruto’s boisterous personality that he showed to everyone else except Sasuke they all expected him to jump in excitement at the news but he froze with his mouth open before he could say a word.  
Kakashi had just told them they were going to enter the next chuunin exam and although the blonde wanted that more than anything, he wasn’t expecting it to happen any time soon. All their previous class mates from the Academy were already chuunin, their team being the only one left behind. But it was only in term of ranks of course because Sasuke and Naruto were anything but weak and Sakura was doing a good job becoming a medic nin that could also do some damage in battle. She was trained by Tsunade herself and she also asked Haku to teach her how to use the senbon needles efficiently on the battlefield or not and she was rather confident in her skills now.  
She didn’t give up on Sasuke, she never thought she would but she spent more time focusing on her training so that Sasuke would have no reason to say that she was weak or that she was dragging them down. She also became nicer to Naruto, not because she liked him but because Sasuke approved her behavior and she also had to be honest, Naruto was strong.   
It had not been easy for her to learn to rely on Naruto during battles, not when her instincts told her to stay away from him but she had to admit that he never let her down and always had her back just as much as he had Sasuke’s. Of course the battles they did thus far were training with Kakashi and other teams of Konoha chuunin so they were not the real thing but she figured that they could do well in a real battle too.  
Kakashi probably thought the same since he allowed them to finally enter the exam.   
The written test had been easy to pass and soon enough they found themselves in the mountains around Kumogakure for the practical test. The task was simple enough: there were 20 scrolls infused with chakra hidden in the mountains and they had seven days to find one or defeat another team and get one in order to pass. Only the teams who had a scroll at the end of the seven days would pass and there were 37 teams.  
The three of them had analyzed their situation and Sasuke was the first to come with a plan.  
“We should keep a low profile for the first three days and look for a scroll then attack other teams in the last four days.”  
“But we wouldn’t need to attack anyone if we find a scroll.” Sakura pointed out. “We would just have to protect it.”  
“I guess Sasuke is trying to say that we shouldn’t let the other teams know that we are looking for one.”  
“Naruto is right. We don’t know anything about the location of the scrolls, only their number and a way to identify that it’s the real thing, so certain skills are needed by the teams to find them.”  
“A sensory type ninja or a summoning that can sense the chakra infused in the scrolls.” Naruto added.  
“Those who have no means of finding a scroll will try to steal one.” Sakura nodded.  
“But we really don’t have a way to find the scrolls.” She pointed out.  
Sasuke began walking on the narrow mountain path before them “We should find shelter for the night first.”  
Kumo’s mountains were nothing like Konoha’s forests. The high peaks reached the clouds and the valleys were very often covered by mist, so the visibility was low and relying on sight alone would bring one to certain death. “Conceal your chakra.”  
They made their way deep in the mountains until they found a cave that could serve them as shelter for the night.  
“Are we going to stay here for the first three days?” Sakura asked and Sasuke nodded.  
They settled camp and made a fire in the depth of the cave but as Sakura was serving dinner to them she couldn’t help but ask the question that had been bugging her since the beginning.  
“I still don’t understand how we are going to find a scroll.”   
“Naruto can do it.” Sasuke gave the blonde beside him a confident look although Naruto looked anything but confident. His blue eyes were fixed on the cup of tea in his hands as he was lost in thoughts.  
“I’ll try.”  
Naruto found a spot in the cave that was a little further away from the camp and started meditating. If he couldn’t find the scroll in sage mode then they wouldn’t be able to find one at all. His senses were sharp due to the demon sealed inside of him but chakra signatures were easier to spot in sage mode and he was glad that Jiraya had trained him to reach this level.  
He never used the sage mode in their usual training and the only ones who knew about it were Sasuke and Jiraya so Sakura let out a gasp when he opened his eyes all of the sudden and instead of being blue they were like a toad’s. He pointed towards a general direction and without a word Sasuke summoned a raven and sent him off.  
“What is it?” she asked confused.  
“We don’t know yet.” Sasuke answered rather impatient as he looked towards the entrance of the cave waiting for his raven.  
All of the sudden Naruto jumped up and running out of the cave he disappeared in the mist. The sudden action took Sakura aback but Sasuke was soon enough following the blonde. It didn’t take long for Sasuke to understand what had happened because soon enough he felt chakra signatures further ahead. His raven had been spotted by other ninja and they figured that it was a summon searching for scrolls.  
Sasuke clenched his teeth, they had to fight, there was no other way around it and they were outnumbered.  
There were six of them, two teams who ganged up together against other teams to steal their scrolls. Activating his sharingan Sasuke took a fighting stance and made a chidori while Naruto still in sage mode made a rasengan.  
“We should finish this fast. The sage mode won’t last for long.” Sasuke nodded and they both attacked at the same time.  
They were doing fine and had defeated four enemies before Naruto dropped the sage mode. He was panting heavily and Sasuke realized that he forced himself to keep it on for as long as possible. Stepping in front of the blonde, Sasuke decided to fight alone for a while so that Naruto could rest. Using his sharingan he watched his enemies carefully. He had used his chidori twice and he didn’t want to use it the third time so fast, besides making a close range attack would leave Naruto opened and his priority was to protect his friend.  
The attack came fast from beneath him and he jumped to avoid the douton but once he was in the air the lightning arrow thrown by the second enemy was unavoidable. After that everything happened in slow motion. If it was because of the sharingan or because of the shock, he didn’t know but he could feel the adrenaline level raise in his body when Naruto fell on the ground hit by the lightning arrow aimed at him. It should have been him, not Naruto. Naruto should have been safe.  
Without another thought he made another chidori that was aimed at the lightning user’s heart then with a swift graceful motion he changed his direction to chase the last one. When the enemy couldn’t move anymore Sasuke was satisfied and finally allowed his tired body to fall beside Naruto.

When Naruto opened his eyes it was dark. It wasn’t supposed to be dark though, he was in the middle of a battle and….  
“Sasuke!” He yelled as he recalled that Sasuke was in danger but there was no answer. “Teme!” he yelled louder but there was only silence.  
“You’re too noisy, kit.” A grumpy deep voice could be heard from the endless darkness. “He can’t hear you anyway.”  
“Who are you?” Naruto looked around but he could barely see his own feet in the darkness.  
A light turned on further away from him but he couldn’t see the source. What he could see though was the owner of the voice. “Kyuubi?” he asked hesitantly.  
“No need to be so formal, kit. Call me Kurama.” The giant fox was laying in front of him with his head on the front paws as if sleeping but then lazily he opened one eye to look at his guest with not too much interest.  
“Is that your name?” Naruto asked amazed to see the demon in person. Kyuubi was huge, Naruto thought and he couldn’t even see the fox’s entire body since most of it was still in the dark.   
“No kit. It’s my grandpa’s. I just thought I should mention it. Why are you so surprised that I have a name when you know that Ichibi’s name is Shukaku?” Naruto burst in a fit of laughter.  
“I didn’t think you would be so funny.”  
“I wasn’t trying to be funny, just sarcastic.”  
“Why did you bring me here?”  
“I didn’t bring you here. You passed out.” Naruto’s eyes went wide in panic.  
“Am I hurt, am I going to die?”  
“Yes you’re hurt, no you won’t die. I’ll take care of it.” Naruto sighed relived. For a brief moment he had been scared that he won’t see Sasuke again, or Iruka, or Tsunade, or jiji, or Ichiraku and Ayame or… “You should be more careful though. Acting the way you just did was stupid.”  
“But Sasuke was in danger and he was trying to protect me.”  
Kurama scoffed “Protect you when he couldn’t even protect himself? I wonder how you two even got this far as ninja.”  
“Hey, we’re not that weak.” Naruto protested.  
“No, but you’re dumb.”  
“There’s nothing dumb in protecting a friend.”  
“For your own good you should learn to be more selfish, kit.”  
“I am selfish, especially when it comes to Sasuke.” Kurama sighed seeing that his jailer didn’t understand what he was trying to say.

Sasuke entered the cave carrying Naruto bridal style. He was tired and scared but now there was no time for that. Seeing him, Sakura came running, her face full of concern.  
“Sasuke, what happened? Are you alright?”  
He glared at her, something that he had not done in quite some time and she immediately understood what she did wrong. It was like a second nature for her to be concerned about him, why couldn’t he understand that? She loved him so much, how could he disregard her feelings like that?  
“Put him on the sleeping bag and I’ll heal his wound.” She offered because that glare had been too painful for her.  
“Don’t touch him.” Sasuke ordered her and she just wanted to dig a hole and crawl in it. “Save your strength in case we’re attacked again.” He continued on a more gentle tone.  
He gently put Naruto on the sleeping bag and cleaned his wound then covered him with a blanket then leaned against the wall beside the blonde.  
“Can you at least tell me what happened?”  
Sasuke closed his eyes, resting his head against the wall. “My raven was spotted and two teams ganged up against us.”  
“That doesn’t really explain how Naruto…”  
“He saved my life when I was supposed to be the one protecting him.”  
“But he’s a ninja in the chuunin exam just like us, you shouldn’t be protecting him. He should have your back.” She said full of confidence.  
“He did have my back that’s why he ended up this way.”  
“He was using some technique when he left…Do you know what it was?”  
“The sage mode but he did it without clones to gather energy for him so it drained him out fast.”  
She went to make a hot drink for both of them. “There seem to be lots of things that I still don’t know about Naruto’s techniques.”  
“That’s because he doesn’t want you to know. He knows you’ll just hate him more.”  
“I don’t hate him….I….I can’t help how we were raised, how we were told to stay away from him and now that I also know why I can’t say that I’m not afraid of him. He wouldn’t hurt me, I know that but…” He also keeps you away from me, she thought but she could not say that out loud, Sasuke would just hate her more.

“Sasuke is my friend and I’m ready to die for him.” Naruto leaned against the thick bars that separated him from Kyuubi. He was not afraid to go so close and the fox had to admit that the kit had guts. He liked that. Not many people would have shown their back so casually to the fox.  
“Well I’m not ready to let you die because then I would die too.”  
“So….you’re going to protect me?”  
“That’s what I’m saying.”  
“Does that make us friends?”  
“I’m sealed inside of you. Why would I want to be your friend? You’re like a curse to me.”  
“Your seal is like a curse to me too.” Kurama softened a bit. He had said that Naruto was his curse but Naruto blamed the seal for his misfortune, not the demon.  
“I’m not ready to be your friend but I guess we could be a team.” Naruto turned to look at him and grinned.  
“I’m happy you’re not a pain in the ass like Shukaku.”  
Kurama scoffed “Please don’t compare me to that crazy tanuki. Oh and your wound is almost healed, you can go back now.” Naruto gave him a bright smile and ran into the darkness once again.

“Sasuke you should try and get some rest.” Sakura pleaded. The raven had not left Naruto’s side since they came back to camp and he needed to sleep but couldn’t, so he ran his fingers in the blond hair in an attempt to comfort himself. It was ironic how Naruto was the reason for his concern but also his source of comfort.  
It’s just us against the world, he thought. “I’m fine, Sakura. I can’t sleep anyway but you should try to.”  
She wanted to tell him that she should watch but she was tired too so she did not complain. It was just the first day of the exam and already that much happened.  
Naruto woke up early in the morning. It was still dark when he opened his eyes and felt Sasuke’s fingers in his hair.  
“Sasuke?” He asked on a low voice not wanting to wake Sakura up in case she was asleep. Opening his eyes, Sasuke looked at him and smiled. “Are you ok?” There was concern in the blonde’s voice and that amused the raven.  
“You get hurt and then ask me if I’m ok? You’re such an idiot. You scared the shit out of me, dobe.”  
“I can say the same thing about you, teme.” Naruto pouted. Being called dobe was one thing but idiot…  
“I’m fine.”  
“You don’t look fine. You need to rest.”  
“Someone has to watch and you slept through your shift but don’t worry, I’ll make you pay.” He smirked.  
“I’m awake now and my wound is healed so I can take over.”  
“I’d rather join you when Sakura wakes up.”  
He kissed Naruto’s forehead then went to the cave’s entrance. His raven summon had come back with the scroll.

Sasuke was sitting at the cave entrance watching the rain outside. He took the first shift watching the cave and thus far all was good. Since the first day things have been relatively quiet and he assumed that not many scrolls had been found yet. They would wait one more day then start attacking too.  
Naruto approached him quietly and stretched his arms. “Go to sleep, teme. I’ll take it from here.” Sasuke turned to look at him for a moment then turned to watch the rain again.  
“I’ll stay with you for a while.” Naruto took a seat next to him.  
“You need your beauty sleep, though.” The blonde received a death glare that would have scared the shit out of Sakura but he just laughed. “What’s wrong, Sasuke?”  
“Nothing, I was just thinking….”  
“About?”  
“Sakura….”  
Naruto gave him a concerned look “Did something happen?”  
“No. But there’s something I don’t understand.”  
“What?”  
“She says she loves me….then why does she hurt me? Father is the same. Mother and Itachi always told me that father loves me but he has a strange way of showing it and he’s the one who hurt me the most.”   
“They’re selfish. Your father cares about the clan’s reputation too much and Sakura wants you to return her feelings but because you don’t she hurts you. She can’t let you go.”  
“But didn’t you once say that you are selfish too and that can’t be called love?”  
“I guess people define love in different ways. I don’t believe that true love is selfish though.”  
“You may be selfish but you never hurt me. Doesn’t that count as love?”   
“It may count for some people.”  
“You really have strange ideas but I guess you’re just afraid of love.”  
“Why would I be afraid of it?” Naruto asked confused.  
“Because you didn’t get it for so long and you started to believe that you don’t deserve it so you run away from it.”  
“Now what gave you that idea?” Sasuke leaned closer and gave him a gentle kiss on the lips.  
“This scared the shit out of you a while ago.”  
“It did not. What scared me was Sakura finding out. It still scares me.” Naruto rest his head on Sasuke’s shoulder and Sasuke put his arm around his waist.  
“I missed this…”  
“What?”  
“Us…just being like this. It’s been a few days…”  
“Yeah but we can do what you want once this is all over.”  
“I just wish we didn’t have to hide anything. We’re not doing anything wrong.”  
“Your father would disown you if he knew.”  
“My father disowned me already, dobe.”  
“Oh…I almost forgot. I can’t believe you’re still ok with that.”  
“Why wouldn’t I be? I thought we talked about this before.”  
“I know.” Naruto stood up and walked out of the cave to look at the sky. It was clearing up and he could see a few stars between the clouds. “It’s strange though…You’re so popular and everyone likes you and I’m the most hated person in the village and yet it seems like we only have each other. We belong to different worlds and yet…” Standing up Sasuke went to wrap his arms around the blonde and Naruto rest his head on the raven’s shoulder.  
“Is that how you feel? That we are from different worlds?” Naruto nodded. “Is that why we have to hide?” Naruto nodded again.  
“Does that bother you?”  
“Just a bit. The fact that I don’t really understand bothers me more.”  
“I’m sorry.”  
“What for?”  
“For not making sense.”  
“It’s ok. I’m going to bed.” Turning to face the raven, Naruto smiled at him.   
“Good night.”   
“Don’t I get a good night kiss?”  
“Aren’t you getting used to this too much?” Naruto laughed and Sasuke shrugged before he stole a kiss from the blonde.  
He closed his eyes, trying to get some rest but sleep wouldn’t come. Sasuke remembered how much he wanted to be on a ninja team in his years before the Academy, how he imagined a team to be. They’d be your friends, a second family even, someone you could count on no matter what and someone who always had your back.  
He used to daydream about his future team for hours before he went to bed and the wait until he could go to the Academy became unbearable. But then he met Naruto and they became best friends and he only wanted for the blonde to be on his team. The dream about his ideal team went out the window when he saw how everyone treated his friend and he didn’t expect his team to be like a second family. Or actually he did when his own family started to make his friendship with Naruto a problem and they would argue about it but that was not the family he wanted.  
Later on he feared that the teachers would split them apart after the Academy and he started to feel lonely and anxious. Now he was pretty content with how far they got as a team and he had to admit that Sakura was trying hard to be nicer to Naruto although Sasuke was aware of the fact that her feelings did not change. But what about Naruto? He still seemed broken in Sasuke’s eyes, still walking on egg shells with everyone, even with him sometimes.

“You should get some rest.” Sakura told the blonde as she came to start her shift and guard the camp.  
“Do you mind if I stay a while longer?” he asked still looking at the stars. It was peaceful outside and hard to believe that they were in the middle of an exam and there were enemies everywhere.  
“No.” She leaned against the cave entrance. “Thank you.”  
Naruto was surprised to hear those words coming from her but did not react in a way she could see. “What for?” he asked as casual as he could in spite of the fact that his curiosity was eating him alive.  
“For saving Sasuke. He told me what happened, how you got hurt. I wanted to heal you but he didn’t let me to.” He didn’t know how Sakura felt about that but he was glad that Sasuke didn’t let her do it. “I wonder why?”  
“Didn’t you ask him?”  
“He said I should save my chakra in case we’re attacked.”  
“So…then you do know why.”  
“What he said makes sense but I’m a medical ninja in training. I’m supposed to heal my team mates, am I not? Or does he not believe I’m skilled enough?”  
“I’m sure that’s not the case.”  
“Then why?”  
“Did you say anything to him?” Naruto turned to look at her for the first time since she woke up “Anything that hurt him?”  
She looked taken aback by his words and felt a bit guilty. “Why? What…what did he tell you?” She stuttered.   
“Not much really…just that you say you love him but you still hurt him. Why?”  
She looked at her feet in shame. “It’s frustrating that he doesn’t love me back; that you seem to mean more to him than I do. I can understand that he cares about you since you’re his friend but that doesn’t mean there can’t be room for me in his life as his girlfriend.” Naruto dropped his gaze not being able to look her in the eyes.   
“I’m sorry but I can’t help you there. I can’t change the way he feels.”  
“What does he want from me?” She poured all her frustration in one question that Naruto had no answer for. As far as he knew Sasuke the answer would be ‘nothing’. Sasuke didn’t want anything from her just maybe to stop loving him but that was impossible and he knew that. “I tried to become worthy of him, to become stronger. I worked hard and yet he doesn’t see me.”  
“That’s not true. He does see the progress you made as a ninja, that you are stronger and skilled.”  
“Then is that not enough to be a worthy girlfriend?”   
“I’m not the one you should ask. You don’t want this answer from me but from Sasuke.”  
“Wouldn’t you want your girlfriend to be a strong kunoichi, Naruto?”  
“I….I’ve never thought of that. I’m a jinchuuriki, I’m noting like Sasuke.” With those words he left her alone and went to get some rest before sun rise.  
She let her head fall backwards and hit the cold surface of the rock behind her head.   
He never thought about such things…didn’t everyone think about having a girlfriend or boyfriend, about the family they might make in the future, about love? But Naruto’s chances of having a girlfriend were close to none since their generation was raised with hatred towards him so why would he bother to think about the future. It would just hurt him more, wouldn’t it? Even she thought that was sad.  
Was Sasuke trying to fill that emptiness for the blonde, she wondered. He didn’t have to do it and Sasuke didn’t pity Naruto she knew that for sure. So was it love that kept Sasuke so close to Naruto? She feared the answer to that, she dreaded it but no matter how much she thought about it there was no other answer. Sasuke had not shown interest in anyone else but Naruto.  
Sasuke woke up with the first sun rays and joined her outside.  
“Good morning!” She gave him a sad smile “Did you sleep well?”  
“It’s cold here in Kumo’s mountains.” He shoved his hands in his pockets. “But it wasn’t that bad.”  
“Can I ask you a question?” she asked but as soon as the words left her mouth and he focused all his attention on her she wanted to take it all back.  
“What?”  
She needed to know though. “Do you love Naruto?” It was either yes or no but at least she knew where she stood. She wouldn’t be able to give up on him but at least she would know.  
“No. He doesn’t let me to.”  
“He doesn’t let you?” she asked confused. “Since when do people need to ask for permission to love?”  
“That’s not what I meant. Love is so pure in his eyes, with no selfishness and no jealousy that it feels unreal. I can’t give him that so in his eyes I don’t love him at all because although I would never hurt him I’m selfish.”  
“So you do have feelings for him.”  
“I do, I always have. I can’t label them though because he doesn’t label them the way most people do.”  
“Do you want him to be more than your friend?”  
“I’m fine with the way we are. I don’t need more. I’ll take whatever he offers me whether it’s love or hate or something else.”  
“That’s confusing. People don’t like getting hurt or not getting their feelings returned when love and friendship are involved so why would you accept anything from him?”  
“Because I’m selfish and I need him in my life more than even my own family. He wouldn’t hurt or hate me though, he’s not like that.”  
“Didn’t he ever hurt you, not even once, not even without intention, not even for your own good?” Sasuke shook his head. “Why didn’t you let me heal his wound? It wasn’t just to save my strength, was it?”  
“Neither of you wanted that.”  
“Neither of us? But I offered…”  
“You didn’t really want to help him, Sakura. Let’s be honest. You would have been glad to heal me if I was injured but not him and he doesn’t want you to heal him either. He doesn’t want to rely on you.”  
“But why?”  
“For many reasons really. For a start he knows you don’t like him and he doesn’t want to owe you anything, then I guess he blames himself because I don’t love you, which is stupid but he’s a dobe. He wants to be a good team mate that we can rely on but he won’t rely on us, especially on you.”  
“You mean he doesn’t trust me?”  
“I wouldn’t say that. I guess it’s just the instinct of someone who was alone and hated his entire life.”


	19. Chapter 19

The chuunin exam was over and Iruka called them all for dinner to celebrate. He was proud of all of them but mostly of Naruto since he managed to get this far.   
Iruka and Kakashi had talked more than once about Kakashi’s team and his reasons for not letting them enter the exam and although he didn’t agree with the jounin he could understand his reasoning. They were both concerned for the three kids for more than one reason and showed their concern in different ways. But now they got to a level where they seemed to have gone over their personal problems with one another and were ready to go in the wide world for more challenging missions. Iruka was still concerned for the blonde though, he couldn’t help it.  
“Why didn’t you let Sakura heal Naruto?” He asked Sasuke both concern and anger showing in his voice.  
The adults had made the kids tell them everything that happened during the exam and Sakura had spilled this small detail that neither one of the boys wanted to mention to the teachers.   
“She’s the medic in your team, that’s her job.” Kakashi pointed out.  
“Iruka, it’s ok. It was nothing big.” Naruto attempted to calm Iruka down a bit but he wasn’t buying it.  
“You were out for hours after that.”  
“I’m fine though.”  
“That’s not the point. The point is that you didn’t act like a team.” Kakashi said. “Well, Sasuke didn’t.”  
Sasuke lowered his gaze to his now empty plate. There was no way to explain his reasons, how he felt at the thought of Sakura healing Naruto after hurting him so much over the years, after not even showing concern for him when he was wounded and unconscious in Sasuke’s arms. She offered only to make herself look good in Sasuke’s eyes and that made him feel sick.  
Now Naruto was trying to cover for him only because he didn’t know what to say. “I took care of it.”  
“You don’t know how to heal with chakra, though.” Iruka said.  
Sasuke stood up suddenly surprising everyone. “Naruto does though. At least he can heal himself and does not need Sakura.” Without another word he left the table and was soon followed by a concerned blonde.  
They stopped on the roof of Naruto’s apartment building and just stood in silence watching the sunset.  
“I’m glad you didn’t let her do it.” Naruto eventually broke the silence.  
“I know but that’s not why I did it.”  
“It doesn’t matter why you did it.”  
“Are we going to be ok like this as chuunin? It’s over with the D ranks now.”  
“Why wouldn’t we?”  
“We can pretend to be a team in front of Kakashi but can we really do it out there? I mean if it’s the two of us I know we can.”  
Naruto turned to look at Sasuke a bit concerned. This was what they both wanted, to be chuunin. They did it now so why would Sasuke have doubts if Kakashi didn’t? “Did something happen?”  
“Sakura asked me if I love you.” Naruto lay down with a hand under his head and looked up to the sky once again.  
“I see…”  
“Don’t you want to know what I told her?”  
“It doesn’t matter. If she thinks you love me…. She asked me why doesn’t there seem to be a place for a girlfriend in your life beside your friend.”  
“You make me feel like I’m the bad guy now.”  
Naruto grabbed Sasuke’s shirt dragging him down and the raven nuzzled the blonde’s neck. “I don’t mean to. It’s not your fault.” His fingers brushed the black hair in a soothing way.  
“I think I do though and she seemed to have realized it too.”  
“I’ve been thinking…”  
“Hm?”  
“If we become jounin I could ask Tsunade to make us a two men team.”  
Sasuke raised his head to look into the blue eyes not believing his ears. “What?”  
“Jounin are not stuck in four men cells.”  
“Of course I know that but two men cells? Only rogues go like that. If we become ambu we’d be in six men cells, even the black ops have three men cells.”  
“That’s why I said I’d have to ask Tsunade as a favor. It would be just us against the world.” His hand moved to Sasuke’s cheek bringing the raven back from his daze.  
“And we won’t need Kakashi’s permission to take the jounin exam, just the Hokage’s.” Naruto nodded and Sasuke lowered his head, closing the distance between them in a hungry kiss. He licked Naruto’s lip making the other gasp and wrap his arms around Sasuke’s neck.   
“Damn Sasuke, you’ve never been like this before.”  
“Like what?” The raven asked against the blonde’s lips.  
“So…needy.”  
“I didn’t have you for myself in a week.” Naruto laughed hard at that.  
“That sounds gay and perverted, you realize that? Besides it’s not like you’d ever had to share me with Sakura.”  
“I just missed being able to fool around with you all I wanted. Do you want me to stop?”  
“No. I was just wondering what changed?”  
“I’ve been doing a lot of thinking since I talked to Sakura that night.”  
“And?”  
“I’d give you anything you wanted but I wouldn’t let you leave me. Doesn’t that mean I love you?”  
“We’re back to that subject again?”  
“Don’t you ever think about it though?”  
“No. I just enjoy what I have right now. I enjoy the time I spend with you, this sunset, the stars on the clear sky and the warmth of the Fire Country. Not that I want to complain or anything but Kumo was too cold for my taste.”  
Sasuke smiled at him. “Yeah it was cold, wasn’t it?”  
“Like shit.”   
“Fine then. I can live without thinking about it too. I’ll just go with the flow.” He let a trail of kisses on Naruto’s lips, jaw and neck, then settled down on licking and sucking a spot on the nape of the blonde’s neck making the other pant then Naruto tilted his head to give Sasuke more room. “That’s going to leave a nice mark.” Sasuke smirked proud of his job.  
“Damn it, teme.”  
“You didn’t stop me this time.” Sasuke defended himself but there was no trace of guilt at all in his voice.  
“I didn’t think you would act like a bastard and let everyone know what you did by leaving a mark.” Naruto tried to be angry with him but the truth was that he could care less at the moment. He just went with the flow, like Sasuke since he too missed these quiet moments they had together.  
“You can hide it later if you want.”  
“I’ll forgive you since your tongue felt so good.”  
“And you say that I sound gay and perverted. But I’ll oblige and give you what you want. Would that be all you want?” Sasuke’s hand moved under Naruto’s shirt lifting it to reveal the belly which made Naruto tense a little. He had always been conscious about the seal that couldn’t be seen but was still there. “It’s ok.” He whispered in Naruto’s ear and kissed his belly a few times until Naruto relaxed.  
“Lots of people would like to stab me right there.”  
“I’d never do that.” His tongue moved above Naruto’s bellybutton leaving a wet trail.  
“Sakura asked me what would make someone worthy to be your girlfriend. She’s do anything…”  
“What did you tell her?”  
“Nothing, because I don’t know the answer.”  
“Don’t you?”  
“No.”  
“Are you sure, dobe?”  
“Yes. I am curious though, now that she brought it up.”  
“I won’t tell you then.”  
Naruto pouted and flipped their position so that he was on top of Sasuke. “Why not? I thought you would tell me anything.”  
“Why do you want to know?” Sasuke didn’t bother to change their position; instead he just lay there watching Naruto carefully.  
“Just curious.”  
“Nothing would make anyone worthy to be my girlfriend because I only want you.”  
“I’m not your boyfriend though.”  
“So what? At this point we’re not acting like friends anyway.”  
“But we don’t act like boyfriends either.”  
“What do you mean?”  
“Well, we never dated.”  
“We live together, dobe and do I need to remind you that I don’t sleep on your couch.”  
“So what? We didn’t do anything.”  
“Except kissing and nuzzling and holding hands.”  
“Yeah, except for that but we’ve been doing that since we met, except for the kissing part.”  
“That just means that we never really acted like normal friends do.”  
Naruto rest his head on Sasuke’s chest and the raven wrapped his arms around the smaller boy. “I know that. I just need this from you. You make me feel like I have a reason to live, like I’m not a pest.”  
“I wish I could give you everything you deserve though.” Naruto closed the distance between them and kissed Sasuke gently.  
“I know you do, but I only need you.”  
“I only need you too.”

“Hey, ero senin!” Naruto yelled as he ran down the road with Sasuke in tow. They had been looking for the man for some time until they were told he was on a spying mission and then they had to wait until he came back.  
Seeing the old man back in Konoha made the boys excited again.  
“Don’t call me that, you brat. And can’t you be less loud?” The old man asked with a tint of anger in his voice but he was mostly pretending.  
“I was making sure you heard me.”  
“I bet even Tsunade heard you from her office in the Tower on the other side of the village.”  
“Good ‘cause then you don’t have to drop by and give her a report and you can train us right away.”  
“What? You want more training? What makes you think I didn’t teach you everything I know?”  
“One word…” Sasuke said “Shunshin.”  
Jiraya rubbed his chin thinking “So you want to learn shunshin? It’ll cost you though.”  
“What?” both boys asked at the same time.  
“You know….inspiration…”  
“Fine.” Naruto agreed.  
“On two conditions though.” Sasuke added and both Naruto and Jiraya gave him questioning looks. “You never mention to anyone what you see and you teach us everything you know.”  
Jiraya nodded a few times “But you’ll have to give me something new for each jutsu I teach you.”  
“Deal.” Sasuke agreed   
It took them a week to master shunshin but it was definitely worth it since they could just teleport wherever they wanted in the village in an instant. Naruto did not hesitate to show his enthusiasm as he teleported around the training grounds left and right leaving a trail of leaves behind while Sasuke was more composed. Still the smirk on his face did not fade at the thought that he could escape from Sakura now if she felt like following him around to talk.  
Jiraya’s grin was even wider in anticipation of his payment.   
“So what do you have for me, boys?”  
Naruto rolled his eyes, his enthusiasm all gone with the wind. Sasuke leaned closer to him and whispered something in his ear and Naruto nodded before he turned into his female form. Sasuke did a henge too but only to look a bit older and match the age of Naruto’s henge. The raven then put an arm around Naruto’s waist and the other on her hip and kissed her. She leaned into the kiss, wrapping her arms around Sasuke’s neck.  
Sasuke stopped kissing Naruto when he assumed that the pervert had lost too much blood and ended the show by licking her neck making the blond moan.  
“Hey, ero senin? Was that good enough for you?”  
“More…” A trail of blood was running down his chin, dripping over his shirt but he didn’t seem to notice or he probably didn’t care.  
The boys exchanged a meaningful look then once again Sasuke wrapped his hand around Naruto, from behind this time and rest his hand on her belly like he often did. His fingers caressed the tanned skin on her neck, lifting her chin and keeping it in that position as he kissed her neck, nibbling on it. Naruto’s mouth was slightly opened and the sound of her panting was all that he could hear. Her own tanned hand rest on her belly, on top of his while the other drifted in his hair.  
It was supposed to be a show for the perverted senin but they were both trapped in the heat of the moment, they had gone beyond the game a long time ago.  
Naruto was brought back to reality when Sasuke released of his soft but firm restrain on her chin and they released the jutsu. He felt uncomfortable and a bit angry since he lost control over there. Did Jiraya notice? He hoped not but when his blue eyes drifted to their teacher he realized that he wasn’t alone anymore. Their pink haired team mate stood there with a horrified expression on her face.  
“What are you doing here, Sakura?” Sasuke asked not bothering to hide his anger. He had let his guard down and had not paid attention to the surroundings and chakra signatures and now Naruto probably hated him for being so careless.  
Tears fell down her cheeks and she didn’t bother hiding it either “Kakashi sent me to find you.” She said between sniffs.  
“We’ll be back for training tomorrow.” Sasuke told Jiraya who barely managed to nod before he fainted.  
“I know you weren’t faking it….” She said as she walked besides Sasuke, the blonde being left somewhere behind them.  
“Of course we were. Jiraya teaches us jutsu and we put up a show for him. That was the agreement.” For Naruto’s sake he would try to save the situation, not that he cared what Sakura thought or knew.   
She shook her head, her eyes focused on her feet as she walked away from the training grounds. “You didn’t put your hand on his chest but on his belly.” Sasuke tilted his head confused. “The first thing a man would touch is the girl’s breasts but Naruto doesn’t have any. It’s not the first time you did this, was it?”  
Sasuke was at a loss of words, there didn’t seem to be any way out of this.

Naruto had been quiet after that and quite absent. He seemed to listen to whatever Kakashi was saying but Sasuke doubted that the words reached his ears. Then they were dismissed and although they could have used shunshin to go home, Naruto walked slowly. He followed silently not sure if it was the right time to say something.  
When the apartment’s door was closed behind them Sasuke couldn’t take the silence anymore.  
“I’m sorry. I should have been more careful.”  
“It’s ok. There’s no point in hiding it from her anymore.”  
Wrapping his arms around Naruto’s waist, Sasuke brought him closer and for a moment he studied the blonde’s expression. “Are you really ok with it?” He knew the answer no matter what Naruto said but he still wanted to ask. Naruto leaned closer until their noses touched and this time the contact felt like electricity through Sasuke’s body.   
“I’m ok with this…” Naruto pressed his lips firmly on Sasuke’s and the raven closed his eyes enjoying the moment but it was short lived. “You know….I used to think I didn’t deserve this but you still gave it to me and now I want it. I’m glad that Sakura was left in tears. I’m a bad person aren’t I?” Sasuke cupped his cheeks and smiled at him.  
“I would never think that about you and who cares what everyone else thinks?” Naruto pulled him in another kiss and Sasuke couldn’t help but smile against the tanned lips. “Aren’t you getting used to this a bit too much?” he asked teasingly in the same way Naruto had done it before countless times.  
“Shut up. It’s your fault for getting me used to this habit of yours.” The answer came a bit bitter but Sasuke’s smile didn’t fade.

“I never thought I’d feel relived about this.” Naruto broke the silence that settled after Sasuke turned off the lights so that they would go to sleep. He was on his back with his hands serving as a pillow under his head and his eyes fixed on a beam on moonlight that entered the room through the window.  
“Are you really?” Sasuke lay on his side, facing Naruto and his eyes analyzed the blonde’s profile under the dim light.  
“Yeah. I’m not good at holding secrets.”  
“Liar.” At the sudden accusation Naruto shifted his gaze at the raven beside him with a questioning look.  
Under the covers Sasuke’s hand drifted on his belly and Naruto’s expression suddenly changed in understanding.  
“You’re holding the biggest secret in Konoha.”  
“If you say it like that…”   
„And you pretended to be an idiot the entire time at the Academy.”  
„Ok, I get it.” Naruto laced his fingers with Sasuke’s on top of his belly. „I can’t help feeling sorry for her though.”  
„Why?”  
„If she feels about you the same way I do then I can only imagine the pain of rejection that she feels.”  
„I can’t feel about her the way I feel about you though and I can’t feel sorry for her either.”  
„I didn’t mean that you should. I know you can’t help how you feel and she can’t help it either.”  
„Maybe one day she will become less shallow and find someone else.” Sasuke could only hope that it would happen soon and things would become less complicated and awckward with their team.  
„Someone who does love her.” Naruto completed. „Everyone deserves someone to love them.”  
The words were simple but the fact that they came from Naruto made Sasuke feel like he was punched in the stomach. It felt sad to hear such words comming from the boy who had no one to love him for years and he had a sudden urge to show the other that he too was loved.   
„At least she has a nice family.”


	20. Chapter 20

When they arrived at the market they had a feeling that something strange was going on. It had only happened that morning but the news spread throughout the village like a storm and now everyone was talking about it more or less discreet.   
Sasuke felt several eyes on him as he walked through the market and he knew it wasn’t because Naruto was beside him. People were already used to see them together in the village all the time.  
They were not trying to eavesdrop on anyone’s conversation but some people spoke louder than others and the boys could hear them say things like ‘I knew we couldn’t trust them’ or ‘I can’t believe Fugaku Uchiha would do that’ or ‘I can’t see the Uchihas in the same way again’. Sasuke wanted to stop and ask someone what was going on but the looks they were giving him made him uncomfortable. They were the same looks that Naruto received from the villagers all the time.  
Sensing his discomfort, Naruto grabbed his hand and squeezed it gently. “Let’s look for Kakashi and find out what’s going on.” He said and Sasuke nodded in agreement then they both left the market.  
Someone calling their names stopped them in their track and turning around they waited tor Iruka to catch up with them.  
“I’m so sorry, Sasuke.” Iruka said looking genuinely sad and concerned.  
“Why? What’s going on, Iruka sensei?” Sasuke asked; glad to finally see someone who can give him some answers.  
The man looked confused for a moment until he realized that probably no one had informed the black sheep of the clan about anything. “Your father was arrested this morning along with other black ops.” Sasuke’s eyes widened in shock and Naruto’s grip on his hand tightened. “Apparently he planned a coup with the black ops and they attacked the Hokage and Sarutobi sama last night.”  
“Where’s Itachi?” Sasuke interrupted him.  
“He didn’t seem to be involved….” What else Iruka said was left unheard because Sasuke disappeared with Naruto in a trail of smoke and dust.  
He had teleported them at the Hokage Tower since the jail was just beside it and found Itachi talking to Kakashi and Ibiki as they waited for the Hokage to finish her rather loud conversation with the council.  
When Itachi sensed Sasuke’s presence he turned around to face his little brother.  
“What’s going on?” Sasuke asked his brother.  
“Apparently I’ll be the head of the black ops from now on, or whatever is left of them. What father did was unforgivable. He tainted the Uchiha name just like Madara did before him.” Putting a hand on top of Sasuke’s head, he ruffled his hair with a loving gesture. “You can come home now, little brother. Mother misses you and she needs you now more than ever.”  
Sasuke lowered his head and looked at the ground. Everything was so sudden and it was hard for him to emotionally adjust to everything.  
“Who will be the head of the clan now?” If he could go back to the Uchiha district or not depended on that a lot and considering that many members of the clan were arrested earlier that morning he didn’t know who was entitled to that position anymore.  
“Obito’s father.” Itachi answered flatly. So Shisui’s father who was next in line was arrested too, Sasuke concluded. “He was one of the few black ops who were not involved in the coup.”  
“Do you think the Hokage will allow the black ops to even exist anymore after this?”  
“I don’t know yet Sasuke. That decision will be made later.” Itachi lifted his chin gently and their eyes met. “Go see mother now, Sasuke.” The words did not come out as an order but rather as a plea coming from a son who was concerned for his mother and Sasuke nodded.  
“You’ll keep me updated, right?” He asked as he turned around to go back in the district after quite some time. When Itachi nodded in agreement Sasuke walked slowly away from the Tower dragging Naruto with him. He could use shunshin to teleport there but he wasn’t looking forward to going back to the mansion. He was only doing this for his mother.  
Naruto was quiet the entire time knowing that it was what Sasuke needed but he never let go of his hand until they reached the gate of the district. Sasuke was brought back from his thoughts at the sudden loss of contact and gave Naruto a questioning look.  
Naruto shook his head. “I can’t go in there.”  
“I don’t think mother would mind.” Sasuke didn’t want to be left alone, not there, not then but he could understand why Naruto hesitated. “Please, just this once.” Naruto stood still for a few moments, pondering what to do but eventually gave in, following Sasuke beyond the gate.  
This time it was Sasuke who grabbed his hand, aware of the blonde’s discomfort.  
Sasuke found his mother crying as a few women from the clan were trying to comfort her and attend to her needs while others, who also had their husbands and sons arrested, sobbed on the couch in their living room. To Sasuke it looked like all the women in their clan had gathered in their house to mourn their misfortune and it made him feel even more uncomfortable. He knew Naruto felt the same and was about to leave when his mother saw him standing in the doorway.  
“Sasuke…” She acknowledged him and all the eyes in the room fell on them. They were displeased to see Naruto there; anyone could see it on their faces although no one dared say anything. It wasn’t their place, only Mikoto had the right to throw him out of the house. “Come here, baby.” She pleaded, her arms raised as if waiting for an embrace. Sasuke was torn between his mother and Naruto. He didn’t want to leave Naruto alone and he knew that the blonde would not step further into the room but at the same time he wanted to run in his mother’s arms. He had missed her so much.  
Naruto’s hand slipped from his grip and the blond pushed him gently. Sasuke turned to look at him as if asking if he would be alright and Naruto nodded then he ran in his mother’s arms.  
“I can’t believe you’re back. I missed you so much. Why did you leave?” She held him close to her chest, not showing signs that she would let him go anytime soon.  
“Didn’t Itachi tell you?” His voice was muffled in her embraced.  
“He did but I can’t understand. I’m sorry.” He didn’t think she would. Family had always come first for her no matter what and she couldn’t comprehend him choosing Naruto over his family. It wasn’t a matter of who Naruto was though because she was kind and had never seen Naruto like other villagers did. “You will come home now, right?”  
Home. That word didn’t suit that house in Sasuke’s opinion. Although he grew up there and knew every single room like the back of his hand it still seemed foreign to him.  
He wanted to say no but that would hurt her even more and he was supposed to comfort her. “I’ll think about it. I promise to come and visit again though.” He could see her eyes sparkle with a glint of happiness and he gave her a sad smile that she returned before escaping her embrace.  
“Won’t you stay longer though?” she asked as he returned to where Naruto was standing.  
“I’ll be back when you don’t have visitors.” He said flatly before dragging Naruto out of the house.

“Are you alright?” Naruto asked softly as they lay in the bed that night. Sasuke wasn’t tired and he didn’t think he could fall asleep anytime soon but it became a habit for them to do most things together so when Naruto changed into his night clothes and climbed in the bed Sasuke did the same.  
“Yeah.” Naruto’s tanned hand slid under his shirt and Sasuke welcomed the touch.  
“I’m not expecting you to. In your place I’d be overwhelmed.” Sasuke put a hand on top of Naruto’s and folded the other under his head.  
“I’m not surprised father did that, not after everything that happened. He hated Sandaime and since the Godaime was his student…”  
“Are you going back home?” Sasuke shifted his head to look into Naruto’s blue eyes and he saw them lifeless as they were the first time they met.  
“That place hasn’t been my home in a very long time.”  
“But your father won’t be there this time.”  
“You won’t be there either. I would ask you to move in the Uchiha district with me but I know you wouldn’t.”  
“I couldn’t. It would be too much trouble for you. But this time we could see each other every day…”  
“Do you want me to go back?” Sasuke cut him off and Naruto was left with his mouth slightly opened. “Because if you do, I’ll go back tomorrow.” Naruto didn’t answer, instead he held Sasuke in a tight hug that gave his answer more than clearly. Sasuke’s fingers reached to play with golden locks as Naruto lay on his chest not letting go of him. “I have no intention of leaving you.” Sasuke said softly “I thought you knew that by now.”  
“I can’t let you go either.” Naruto whispered as if hoping that Sasuke wouldn’t hear him and think that he was clingy and selfish. He knew he was but he wasn’t proud of it.  
“I know and I wouldn’t want you to. After all the shit we’ve done we went beyond what people call friendship.”  
Naruto raised his head to look in Sasuke’s eyes. “I’m just sorry that you can’t have both me and your family. You deserve to be happy.”  
“You deserve to be happy too.”  
“With you by my side, I am.”

After that things went down the drain for the Uchihas. They lost their position in the Clan’s council and the black ops were reduced to a shadow of their former selves, losing authority in the villager’s eyes.  
Sasuke and Naruto saw Obito still patrolling the village with his new team since Shisui was in jail but they lost the pride they had as Konoha’s only police force. Sasuke wondered what Itachi thought about it all. The black ops barely had any members left to cover the entire village and them patrolling the streets seemed so pointless now.  
“The rest of the clan will have to suffer the consequences of father’s action.” Sasuke told Naruto as they watched a black ops cell pass by. “I’m surprised the clan wasn’t exiled and put in the bingo book.”  
“Can they do that to an entire clan though? Besides there are innocent people in your clan. Some of them aren’t even ninja.” Naruto pointed out.  
“People see clans as a whole, they don’t see the members as individuals but as representatives. If a member does something stupid they blame the clan.” Naruto thought it was stupid of the villagers to do so but then again they did many other stupid things.  
The last few days in the Hokage Tower had been busy with meeting with the council of elders and the clan council and Sasuke was curious what was going to happen next.  
“I’m going to visit mother again today. Will you come with me?” Naruto looked uncomfortable again, torn between his temptation to refuse and Sasuke’s obvious need to have him by his side. In the end he nodded slowly and Sasuke hugged him right there in the middle of the market. “Thanks.”  
After they did their shopping they headed to the Uciha district once again and once again Sasuke grabbed Naruto’s hand when they reached the gate never letting go as they walked towards the compound. There were visibly less people in the district, Sasuke observed as they walked by several houses and stores. Up until then he had not been aware how many clan members had followed his father in the coup but the way the district looked now gave him a clue.  
Entering the house he grew up in he found his mother and Itachi in the kitchen. They had been talking but Itachi suddenly stopped when Sasuke and Naruto appeared in the doorway.  
“Welcome back little brother!” He greeted with a warm smile not bothering to acknowledge Naruto’s presence.  
“Sasuke!” His mother whipped her hands with the apron and leaving the counter where he had been working, she gave him a breathtaking hug. “You’re back.”  
“We’re just visiting, mother.” He didn’t like how Naruto had been ignored the entire time but he didn’t want to make a scene. He came to get information and that was his priority.  
“Aren’t you coming back home? This place is so empty now that Itachi has more responsibilities with the black ops and he is hardly ever home.”  
“I’m sorry mother but I’ll come and visit more often.” A sigh left her lips and she let go of him, going back to cooking. “Will you stay for dinner at least? I would love to have dinner with both my sons for once.”   
Sasuke looked at Naruto and the blonde nodded slightly. “We will, mother.”  
The table was set once again after a long time for the entire family and they all set down in their usual seats except for Itachi who took his father’s seat so that Naruto could be next to Sasuke.  
“What’s going to happen now?” Sasuke eventually asked after a few minutes of eating in awkward silence.  
“We have lost the trust of the village. The Hokage and the other clans don’t trust us with missions outside the village anymore.”  
Sasuke put down his chopsticks, suddenly not feeling hungry anymore. “Are they going to take me off Kakashi’s team too?”  
“No. You severed your bonds with the clan some time ago and although the subject was brought up the Hokage decided to let you stay with your team.” Sasuke let out a small sigh of relieve. He would not be separated from Naruto again.  
“What about the black ops? There are hardly any people left to patrol the village.”  
“The black ops have become useless. They’re just a formality now. It gives the Ucihas something to do, the feeling of a job and a purpose.”  
“But you won’t stay there for much longer, right dear?” Mikoto’s gaze was full of hope as she looked at her oldest son.  
“No mother.”  
“Itachi was offered a place as ambu.” She proudly explained. “He’ll follow only the Hokage’s orders so no one else will know who he is.” Sasuke’s piercing gaze fell on his brother as he wondered what had Itachi done to get such a privilege. There was no doubt that he was capable for an ambu position but after all that happened it was more than surprising to have an Uchiha raised to the level of ambu. Sasuke wondered if he had been involved in preventing the coup. That would explain the Hokage’s trust in him.  
“So, Sasuke…” Itachi began casually “Mother tells me you promised to think about moving back home. Have you made a decision yet?”  
“I have no intension of leaving Naruto.” Sasuke didn’t hesitate like he did the last time.  
“You talk like you are a married couple and someone wants to brake you up.” Itachi snorted and Naruto tucked down his head as a blush tainted his sun kissed cheeks. “You will still see each other for training and mission and even around the village. I’m sure Naruto wants to go back to his normal life style too.”   
Naruto wanted to interfere but was too afraid to do it. For him it was already a big deal to be seated at a table with Sasuke’s mother and brother and Sasuke was aware of that so he didn’t blame him.  
“Maybe if you accepted him and treated him differently than everyone else I would have considered your offer but he only has me in this damn place. I’m not leaving him.”  
“You’re exaggerating now, Sasuke. I’m sure Naruto understands that you belong with your family. Don’t you, Naruto?” It was the first time since they arrived that Itachi talked to Naruto directly and all eyes fell on the blonde.  
Naruto nodded slightly, torn between his selfish desires and what he thought was the right thing to do.  
“See, Sasuke? Even Naruto agrees.” But Sasuke already knew how Naruto felt and until his family changed their attitude towards Naruto he wouldn’t even consider going back.   
“Are you blind, Itachi? Don’t you see how uncomfortable he is to be here? He only came because I asked him to. He can’t even do his shopping in this damn village without incidents. He needs me more than you or mother.” Putting down his chopsticks Sasuke stood up. “I think it’s time for us to leave.” He left the house and Naruto followed him in a hurry, carrying the shopping bags that Sasuke had forgotten about in his anger.  
“You didn’t have to do that for me, Sasuke.” Naruto said when they were far enough from the house.  
“I didn’t do anything for you. I just gave them a piece of my mind. It made me angry to see them ignore you like that and then use you for their own benefit. I thought mother would at least understand but I guess she spent too much time around father.”  
“Nee, Sasuke. Why did Itachi say that we look like married couple? It was really embarrassing.”  
“I guess that was the point. He thinks I’m overprotective when it comes to you.”  
“You are.”  
Sasuke grabbed one of the bags that Naruto was holding and laced their fingers. “But you don’t mind.”  
“I don’t. You’re the closest thing to a family that I’ve ever known because family members protect each other.”  
Sasuke’s pale cheeks turned to a rosy shade of pink. “Family members don’t do what we do, idiot. Unless they are married.” He pouted avoiding Naruto’s gaze. Naruto blushed too as he realized what Sasuke was talking about.  
“Your mother must miss your father though. Who knows how long he will be in jail.”  
“Maybe she does but not for the reason you imagine.” Naruto gave him a questioning, puzzled look.  
“What do you mean?”  
“Their marriage was arranged by their parents. It wasn’t out of love and I can’t really tell if mother ever got to love him or just obey him. If she misses him it’s just because she is used to his presence and influence in the house.”  
“Oh…” Naruto’s gaze moved to his feet as he walked towards his apartment. “That’s sad.”  
“I guess but it’s not at all uncommon.”  
“Will you be forced to marry against your will too?”  
“I won’t let that happen.”


	21. Chapter 21

Their first mission as chuunin was supposed to be easy enough but at least they would get to leave the village again. It would be Naruto’s second time outside the village and to say that he was enthusiastic about it would be an understatement.  
The mission was to escort the daimio of the Fire Country to Wind for a meeting of the daimios. Such meetings were often held to form new alliances and discuss trading between countries and ninja escorts were almost always hired by the daimios on such occasions.  
When Kakashi received the mission he gave Tsunade a skeptical look. If he were to choose he would have sent jounin especially since the daimio was ready to pay for the best but she told him that the daimio wanted to make a certain impression with his escort. Kakashi wondered if the daimio didn’t want to show off with his escort rather than have them just for their porpoise. Taking a jinchiuuriki as an escort to such a meeting could be dangerous and interpreted as a threat to the other countries.   
The journey to Wind’s capital had been uneventful and boring if you asked Naruto. He would have expected the daimio to have at least a few enemies who would want to ambush them on the way and make things more exciting….  
“You’re such an idiot.” Sasuke said bluntly after listening to Naruto complain for a while. “Do you really think anyone would ambush him on the road when he has an escort of experienced shinobi?”  
“Sasuke is right.” Sakura added “It would be easy to find out who made the attempt if we were ambushed on the road.”  
“You’re no fun at all and all this is already boring.” Naruto pouted. He wasn’t serious, he was just fooling around making silly conversation to pass time but his team mates wouldn’t play along.  
“If anyone is going to attempt anything it will be at the place of the meeting in Wind.” Sakura added as she ignored Naruto’s complaining.  
“Do you think they will though?” Naruto wondered “It’s a political meeting meant for the benefit of the participant countries. Why would they try to assassinate one of the representatives?”  
“Well, let’s just hope that nothing happens.” Sasuke dismissed him but the truth was that he was nervous. Other escorts would be jounin and they were only chuunin. On top of that their relationship was rather complicated and it would affect their team work on the battlefield too.  
Sakura had not mentioned that day since and she was trying to act normal but there was nothing more she could do. Sasuke was paying close attention to her and he noticed that she was not ok at all. If Kakashi noticed too, he didn’t show it but Sasuke didn’t expect the jounin to miss such a detail either.  
What Naruto and Sasuke could do though was to act as normal as possible and not like they usually did around each other, as an attempt to make Sakura feel more comfortable and help her focus on the mission.  
The meetings would last three days. On the first day, when they arrived, there was a protocol dinner and they were given rooms to rest before the day’s meeting was held. The daimios’ rooms were the guest rooms on the first floor of the Wind daimio’s residence while the escorts got rooms on the second floor.  
Before the Fire daimio could go and rest after the meeting was over Kakashi requested to speak to him in private.  
“What do you think Kakashi is planning?” Naruro wondered.  
“I think it has to do with the Wind and Water escorts.” Sasuke pointed out.  
“The seven swordsman of the mist?” Sakura asked. She had read about the elite ninja of the Mist called the Seven Swordsman of the Mist who were ambu level and way out of place at such a meeting although there were only three of them.  
“And Gaara.” Sasuke added as his eyes landed on the red haired boy who was watching Naruto from his place between his brothers.   
Naruto sighed. “So the Fire was not the only one to bring a jinchuriki escort. It could get nasty.” It wasn’t that Naruto wasn’t glad to see Gaara once again, he considered Shukaku’s container his friend although the other may not feel the same way yet but the implications of their presence at such occasion were huge.  
Last time Gaara went as an escort to Konoha at least he had been his father’s escort so the Kages could close an eye to the fact that he was a container but this time there was no excuse just like Naruto had no excuse either.  
He wanted to go and talk to the siblings but the protocol did not permit interactions between escorts unless the daimio allowed it or there was a threat to the escort or the daimio’s life so he had to stay still, close to his team mates until Kakashi returned.  
When Kakashi returned he gave them instructions then dismissed them for the night.  
It was a little past midnight when Kankuro sneaked in the Fire daimio’s room, surrounding the sleeping figure with his puppets. With a swift and precise movement of his finger Kuroari pierced the sleeping figure on the bed making it blow in puff of smoke. Realizing that he had been tricked and he failed his mission, Kankuro grit his teeth and quickly packed his puppets to disappear into the night but realized that his way out was blocked by Kakashi.  
Naruto was also alerted when the clone that he left in the daimio’s room was dispelled and left his room in a hurry to see what was going on. It was Kakashi’s turn to watch over the daimio’s room while Naruto, Sasuke and Sakura were left in the guard’s room to protect the daimio and Naruto had been instructed to leave a clone disguised with henge in the daimio’s bed.  
Jumping out the window in a hurry to go and help Kakashi he found himself facing Gaara.  
“We meet again, Naruto.” Gaara said as calm as always.  
Naruto let his guard down, keeping his senses alert. “Why are you doing this, Gaara?”  
“Nothing personal. We were hired for this just like you.”  
“What does Wind want? What do they have to gain out of killing the Fire daimio?”  
Gaara shrugged “I don’t know, nor do I care. What I want is a fight with you and then maybe I’ll figure out what you have that I don’t.”  
There was no way for Naruto to avoid fighting Gaara twice in a row so he took a fighting stance and made several clones which scattered around the courtyard. If he was going to fight Gaara he would better attack first. The clones wouldn’t do much against Gaara’s sand but they were only meant for distraction. Some of them were sent in a safe place to gather energy for him to keep his sage mode and others would help him make the rasengan while the rest blindly attacked the Suna nin. Looking upwards he saw Sasuke at the window and with a glance begged him to not interfere. Sasuke nodded but Naruto knew that he would only stay away as long as Naruto was safe.  
‘Kurama, I need your help.’ Naruto hated that he had to rely on Kyuubi but there was no other option.  
‘Alright. I was bored anyway so let’s show this tanuki who’s the strongest. I’ll give you as much chakra as you can handle.’  
‘Thanks.’  
Red chakra enveloped Naruto, taking the shape of a fox around him as his features changed to become more feral. Once the first tail was formed he launched his first attack towards Gaara and for a brief moment he thought he saw Gaara surprised but then it could have been his imagination in the dim light because his opponent did not hesitate at all as his sand whipped left and right at Naruto and his clones.  
“So you can control him…” Gaara said as Naruto made another attempt to get closer to him.  
“No, I can’t. He does what he wants and now he wants to help me.”  
“Why would he do that?” Gaara yelled, his expression changing to a grimace as he became more and more angry. “You are his jail.” He went on but this time it was not only his voice that spoke but a mixture of voices that included the demon’s inside of him. He was losing control over Shukaku and made no attempt to fight him at all.  
Gaara’s features changed like Naruto’s once Shukaku interfered but the one tailed beast was not gentle with his host as he went on rampage.  
Naruto bit his lower lip ‘Give me more.’ A third tail grew as he made an attempt to lead Shuukaku away from the building. He could hear voices in the distance as the guards were evacuating the building, taking the daimio and servants to safety. He had to buy them time. ‘More!’ he demanded as he was overwhelmed by Shukaku’s attacks.  
‘Take it easy, kit. You can’t handle more.’  
‘I’ll never win at this rate and people will die.’  
‘Then I’ll take over.’ An evil laugh invaded Naruto’s mind before he lost consciousness leaving Kurama in charge of his body.  
Everyone had evacuated and the Fire daimio was safe with Kakashi and Sakura but Sasuke couldn’t leave Naruto. He watched the battle unfold from the window, his eyes glowing red with the sharingan and although he realized that Naruto had lost control some time ago he couldn’t do anything. He was paralyzed.  
There was nothing left from the human forms of Naruto and Gaara, instead there were two tailed beasts, several times larger than the house he was in, fighting against each other. He was safe only because Kurama, who had seven tails now managed to push Shukaku far away from the building before they destroyed more of it. They attacked each other with bijuudama leaving craters all over the place and the trees were swept in their way.  
For the first time in his life Sasuke saw the power of a tailed beast and for the first time he was afraid. For the first time he realized what the villagers saw on the day of Naruto’s birth and back then it had only been one tailed beast. For the first time he understood.  
Sasuke couldn’t tell how long the battle lasted but he could tell that Kurama won. Shukaku’s body fell on the round and started to shrink and regain the human form of his host. Kurama hovered above him a while longer, making sure he would not get up then withdrew back in his cage as Naruto’s body fell on the ground with a thud.  
Jumping from the window, Sasuke went to Naruto. The chakra level he sensed their way was normal again and he couldn’t wait much longer to check on Naruto. When Sasuke found the blonde he was weak and his breath was shallow. There were chakra burns all over his body, most certainly left by Kurama when he took over but he was alive and Sasuke was grateful for that.  
He heard footsteps coming closer and he recognized the chakra signatures of the Suna siblings, Kakashi and Sakura. Kankurou picked the unconscious Gaara bridal style and walked to where Sasuke was. “I don’t know what happened but this was not in the plan.”  
“What was the plan though?” Kakashi asked, his visible eye observing the siblings closely.  
“We were only hired to assassinate the Fire daimio and I was supposed to do that, not Gaara.” Kankuro explained.  
“Gaara wanted to fight Naruto ever since they met.” Temari interfered. “He does whatever he wants and never listens, that’s just how he is.”  
“He could have killed lots of people tonight.” Sakura said with anger in her voice.  
“We know.” Temari’s voice betrayed concern and regret but she was glad that her little brother was safe. If he let Shukaku take over there was nothing they could do to stop him. “We’re just glad it doesn’t happen often.”

The meetings stopped after the Wind daimio’s intentions were revealed and they started their way back that morning. They were all tired but none of them wanted to stay there any longer.  
Kakashi instructed Sakura to take care of Naruto’s wounds, completely ignoring Sasuke’s piercing glare. If the raven was against it he would have to get over it as for Sakura, as the team’s medic she had to treat her team mates regardless of her feelings. She and Naruto were allowed to travel with the daimio in his carriage and she was tired so she didn’t complain.

As soon as they arrived in Konoha Naruto was rushed in the hospital and Kakashi gave his report as Tsunade hovered above Naruto’s body, inspecting his burns and injuries. Sakura did all she could but chakra burns were a serious thing to deal with and she didn’t get that far in her training so Tsunade and Shizune worked to heal him themselves.  
“What is the Kazekage thinking?” Thunade wondered out loud. “To not hold the jinchuuriki under control is dangerous.”  
“Temari mentioned that it happened more than once but I assume it wasn’t as bad as this time.”  
“It probably wasn’t but that’s not a laughing matter.”  
“Godaime-sama, the life of such a child can’t be easy.” Kakashi said softly and she nodded, her eyed drifting to the unconscious blonde on the bed.  
“I know, I always wished there was more that I could do for him. He is so much like Nawaki.” Her hand drifted to the blue stone that was on a necklace around her neck, a necklace that she had once given to her younger brother, Nawaki.

Naruto was in hospital for a week before Tsunade gave him permission to go home. The last mission had been considered S rank and they were out of missions for at least three more weeks.  
Naruto was dangling his feet as he lay on the pier looking bored.  
“I can’t believe we have no mission for three weeks.” He pouted.  
“I can’t believe you want more missions after you spent a week in the hospital.”  
“That’s exactly why I want one. I was bored all week.” He stated as if it was the most logical thing.  
“Well, not until you heal properly.”  
Sasuke was sitting on the pier beside Naruto and was finally at ease that his friend was alright but the events he saw that night replayed in his mind and Sasuke wondered if he could see Naruto the same way again. He shook the thought away as he remembered the promise that he had made to Naruto to have his sharingan ready to control the tailed beast if Naruto ever lost control. He was the one who failed Naruto not the other way around. Not only was he not ready to control kyuubi but he was paralyzed with fear. He could not blame Naruto for anything and yet he was one step closer to understanding why the villagers were blaming him.  
Naruto’s gaze drifted to him with a concerned look. “Sasuke?”  
Brought back from his thoughts he too looked in the blue eyes. “Hm?”  
“What’s wrong? And don’t tell me it’s nothing.”  
“I…I saw you fight Gaara…”  
Naruto shifted in a sitting position, his eyes focused on the water rippling in the breeze. “I don’t remember much…I know Kurama took over but after that everything is a blur. Were you afraid?” The question was general but what he meant was ‘were you afraid of me?’ and Sasuke was aware of that. He wanted to say no but that would me a lie and he didn’t want to lie to Naruto. His gaze moved away, unable to look at the boy as guilt overwhelmed him.  
“I couldn’t keep my promise to you. I couldn’t control it with the sharingan.” Under normal circumstances Naruto would have grabbed his hand or hugged him but the warm feeling of Naruto’s touch never came.  
“It’s alright, I don’t blame you. After all you can’t rush such things. One day you’ll get your mangekyo, I know it.” Standing up Naruto disappeared in a shunshin and didn’t come home that night.  
The next day Sasuke looked for him in all the places where he knew Naruto liked to hang out but he was nowhere to be found. Sasuke felt guiltier than ever and lost. He had done the only thing he never thought he would do, the only thing he never wanted to do, he betrayed Naruto. The sadness in Naruto’s last words did not go unnoticed and he knew it was not because of the broken promise but because had feared Naruto as he saw him fight Gaara although they weren’t even Naruto and Gaara anymore but Shukaku and Kyuubi. Naruto and Kyuubi had saved everyone from the rampaging beast and yet he had been afraid of him.  
That night he cried himself to sleep, curled up in the bed he had been sharing with the blonde. 

Naruto came back after three days and looked like a complete mess. Sasuke ran towards him, wrapping his arms around the blonde as tears blurred his vision. He couldn’t believe that he almost lost Naruto twice in less than a month.  
“Where have you been, dobe?”  
“I figured we needed some space.”  
“Don’t ever do that again. I mean it.” His lips brushed Naruto’s but the blonde pulled back. “I don’t think you are a demon, Naruto. You saved us all there, you did nothing wrong.”  
“But you were afraid of me.”  
“It was overwhelming to see you like that, to feel that chakra. You weren’t even in control anymore.”  
“I trusted Kurama to do the right thing when I couldn’t. I didn’t lose control like Gaara.”  
“You talked to Kurama?” Sasuke asked puzzled and Naruto nodded.  
“The first time he talked to me was at the chuunin exam when I was hurt and he promised to help when needed.”  
Sasuke hugged him once again and never wanted to let go again, afraid that Naruto might disappear in another shunshin.  
“God, Naru, how do you do it? How do you hold the most powerful beast in your hand?” Naruto burst in a fit of laughter.  
“I don’t. You give me too much credit. We just have an agreement to help each other survive.”  
Sasuke buried his nose in the crook of Naruto’s neck, enjoying the closeness. “You’re still amazing.”  
“So what’s going to happen now?” Naruto asked with a tint of fear in his voice.  
“What do you mean?”  
“With us.”  
“Nothing is going to change, Naruto. I still want to stay by your side. I’m sorry that I hurt you.”  
Naruto’s hand reached his cheek and touched it gently. “I always knew that even with you by my side I had a path that I had to follow alone.” There was sadness in his voice but this time Sasuke knew he wouldn’t leave again. They will be alright.  
Sasuke made another shy attempt to kiss Naruto and this time the blonde didn’t pull back so he gained confidence and deepened the kiss as he pinned Naruto against the wall of the small living room with a thud. His fingers wrapped around Naruto’s wrists, restraining them against the wall, on both sides of Naruto’s head. It was unbelievable how vulnerable the boy that had tamed the most powerful tailed beast was in his hands. His lips moved on the tanned neck sucking gently on a spot and he could hear Naruto breathe harder with his mouth slightly opened. He did the same on different spots a few more times then chose one at the crook of the neck to bite. Naruto moaned at the slight pain mixed with pleasure.  
“Sasu…ke.” Naruto cried as he made an attempt to move but Sasuke closed whatever distance was left between them bringing their chests together. His teeth lingered a bit longer on the soft skin before he settled on sucking the abused skin.  
He had been waiting for this for over a week now and couldn’t wait much longer.  
“You’re going to leave a mark, teme.” But he couldn’t care less. When he felt satisfied he licked the spot one more time and let Naruto go.  
The blonde though jumped on him and pushed him on the couch a fake angry expression on his face. “Now you have to pay for that.” Naruto straddled him and abused Sasuke’s pale neck a little with his teeth until the skin became red. “You know Kurama will heal that by tomorrow but this red mark on your neck will be there for a while.” He said as he admired the red spot that was going to bruise soon. His lips settled down on the same spot once again as he sucked and licked. Once he was done he hovered above Sasuke for a brief moment and his blue eyes met obsidian ones.  
Sasuke’s arms wrapped around his neck, pulling him down in a kiss and he obliged gladly. Naruto had missed these moments he shared with Sasuke since they left for the mission but the most agonizing had been the last three days.  
“Where have you been?” Sasuke asked as they broke the kiss for air. Naruto nuzzled his nose against Sasuke’s neck and Sasuke’s fingers brushed his hair.  
“At Shizune’s place.” His voice was just a bit louder than a whisper.  
“I’ve been looking all over for you. I asked her too but she said she didn’t know where you were.”  
“I asked her to not tell you and she agreed until I was ready to face my fears.”  
“What were you afraid of?”  
“I was afraid you’d hate me after you saw…that...”  
“I would never hate you. I was paralyzed with fear as I watched you and Gaara but I never hated you.” Sasuke’s words felt reassuring for Naruto who left a trail of butterfly kissed on the pale neck.  
“Promise.” He stopped and sucked on a particular spot and Sasuke buried his head deeper in the pillow in pleasure.  
“What?” he breathed.  
“That you’ll never hate me.” The warm breath on his neck was making Sasuke shiver. Naruto rarely kissed him anywhere else than his lips and the sudden abuse on his neck was unexpected but felt amazing. His breathing became heavier as Naruto sucked the ivory skin in random places.  
“I swear.”


End file.
